by David P. Greisman
The burden of proof was not just on the challenger two years removed from his chin being tested and his heart being questioned.
The burden of proof was also on the man he was challenging, an undefeated titleholder who had knocked out 21 of his 27 opponents.
There were reasons to doubt both Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto.
Ortiz had wilted in a firefight with Marcos Maidana in June 2009, unable to compensate when his punches could put Maidana down but not out early; unable to cope with Maidana’s pressure and power as the fight went further; unable to continue when the odds of coming back were getting longer.
Ortiz had been a reclamation project ever since: stoppage wins over safer opponents in Antonio Diaz and Hector Alatorre, a clear unanimous decision over a hobbled, aged Nate Campbell, a knockout of a damaged Vivian Harris and a disappointing majority draw against Lamont Peterson.
Berto would be a step up from Ortiz’s recent run.
Then again, those who doubted Berto did so because of his own level of opposition.
He’d been selected years ago as a potential heir apparent in the welterweight division of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao. And so HBO put him on air, pushed him hard and paid him handsomely.
If this likeable and seemingly capable prospect-turned-contender-turned-beltholder were to become the next champion, then the network would already have him within its wings, those lucrative paydays making a loyal prizefighter.
At a time when the middleweight champion, Sergio Martinez, could only get an HBO date if he fought whom HBO wanted him to fight, Berto himself had been on the network 10 times, mostly against men whom he was perceivably bigger than or better than. His best foes had been Luis Collazo, who’d pushed Berto into a close, hard-fought battle, and Carlos Quintana, who was no longer as good as he once was.
Collazo and Quintana were both former titleholders. Berto had yet to face anyone at the top. He’d signed for a fight with Mosley, a fight understandably called off when a massive earthquake hit Berto’s native Haiti and left his family members in a worrisome situation. A bout with Cotto was never made.
Some felt Berto, emboldened by HBO, was now overpricing himself. His team pointed out that promotional politics were playing a significant role.
No, Ortiz’s recent run didn’t inspire fear. And yes, Ortiz was coming from the 140-pound weight class to challenge a 147-pound fighter. But there were some who pointed out that Ortiz also would be a step up for Berto. Ortiz was taller, they said, and bigger. He was young and strong. And he had an uppercut – the same punch that Cosme Rivera had hurt Berto with in 2007.
There were reasons before the fight to doubt both Berto and Ortiz.
One would prove himself.
Ortiz was indeed bigger than Berto, gaining 15 pounds after the weigh-in and rehydrating to 161 pounds. Berto went up from 145.5 up to 156. Ortiz looked fuller and stronger in this division, reenergized and rejuvenated. It was just two minutes into the first round when he hurt Berto with a right hook, then closed in with a right hook, followed by a right uppercut, then another right hook and another right uppercut.
Berto sought refuge and recovery on the canvas. Upon rising, he tried his equalizer – his fast and powerful right hand. Ortiz walked right through it and landed a hard shot of his own.
Berto looked unsteady and uncertain. Ortiz was pushing the fight, and Berto couldn’t push him away.
Berto did score a knockdown off a right hand in the second round. It was a balance knockdown, though, a shot that landed while Ortiz was squared up.
Ortiz was piling on the punches. He was piling up the points, too, along the way.
After five rounds, Ortiz had landed 131 of 325 punches, including 123 of 262 power shots. Berto had landed just 42 of 167 punches, including just 29 of 61 power shots.
Berto kept searching for the one big punch that would bring the fight back in his favor. While he searched, Ortiz kept finding him. Berto didn’t have the one shot to keep Ortiz away, nor did he have the ability to fight in close. And so when Ortiz worked his way inside, he turned again and again to punishing Berto with the right hook and then the right uppercut.
Berto took five rounds of punishment. He took five rounds to adjust.
He found more success in the sixth, ducking Ortiz’s left hands and returning fire with rights.
It was that precise sequence that allowed Berto to land his best punch in the fight, a right hand that sent Ortiz down two minutes into the round, a knockdown that left Ortiz reeling far more than the flooring four rounds before.
Berto loaded up with right hands and left hooks, landing one cross but missing the remainder.
Two years ago, Ortiz had wilted under pressure from Marcos Maidana in this same round. Ortiz quickly erased any lingering doubts from that night, landing a left hook, then a second left hook in the final seconds of the round. Berto went down hard.
Berto had outlanded Ortiz in that sixth round, the only round in which he would do so, going 32 of 63, including 28 of 43 with power punches. Ortiz had landed 16 of 44, including 13 of 32 power punches.
But the look on Berto’s face betrayed the thoughts of a man who was getting hurt, was getting tired and was getting doubts in his mind as to whether he could recover and retaliate.
In the first six rounds, Berto had landed 74 out of 230 punches, including 57 of 104 power shots. That sixth would largely be his last gasp. In the second half of the fight he would land 73 of 250 punches, including 58 of 147 power shots, stunningly symmetrical statistics when it came to landed punches.
Something similar could be said for Ortiz. In the first six rounds, he was 147 of 369, including 136 of 294 with power shots. In the second half of the fight he would land 134 of 327, including 130 of 276 power shots.
Ortiz had started successful and remained so. Berto had confronted a challenge but could not overcome it. Ortiz won by unanimous decision: 115-110, 114-112 and 114-111.
There had been doubts about Berto due to his past level of opposition, but this was not a case of an unproven titleholder losing to an undeserving challenger. Rather, Ortiz had overcome those reasonable doubts that’d come up due to his past performance. He wasn’t just bigger at welterweight. He was badder than before, putting forth an effort befitting his “Vicious” monicker.
There will undoubtedly still be those who question Berto, who question whether he has the skills or the chin to hang in with those we’d long wanted to see him in the ring with – the top fighters at welterweight.
Let them doubt. We’d doubted Ortiz, too, until he proved himself by proving us wrong.
The 10 Count
1. A correction: My memory is clearly far more faded than Erik Morales’ fighting ability.
In last week’s column, I erroneously recalled how Erik Morales beat Jesus Chavez with one arm.
Except, well, it was Chavez who was the one-armed fighter in that bout.
I regret the error.
2. So much for that long-awaited unification bout between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez.
We’d been talking Gamboa-Lopez since they shared the same card in October 2009, and especially after the two featherweights shined on the same HBO broadcast in January 2010.
That’s when their promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, told us in the least pleasant possible manner that we’d have to wait. “I know what people want,” he said. “And they can go f**k themselves.”
Gamboa has fought three times since then. Lopez’s third fight since then was this past Saturday against Orlando Salido.
People had been talking about Arum wanting to keep the vulnerable Lopez as far away as possible from the superlative Gamboa – heck, Gamboa said as much himself after his last fight.
Now?
Salido defeated Lopez by eighth-round technical knockout. The stoppage came too soon, but the reason for the result was clear: Lopez gets hit, and Lopez gets hurt.
Remember how Lopez got his first title belt? He laced shorter, sharper punches in-between the wider, looping shots of Daniel Ponce De Leon.
That’s precisely how Salido was able to beat Lopez.
When Lopez attacked with hooks, Salido took half a step back to move out of range and sent straight right hands up the middle. He also couldn’t miss with a looping overhand right that kept cracking away at Lopez’s chin.
We’ll probably get a Salido-Lopez rematch – there’s more money for Salido in that than there is in anything else.
And we might still get Gamboa-Lopez yet, even if Lopez never directly makes up for the Salido loss.
But that fight we’d all been waiting for?
Better to strike while the iron’s hot – and before someone gets struck down.
3. Speaking of bouts that won’t happen, it’s an absolute shame that we won’t be getting the rematch of last year’s battle between Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon.
Soto-Antillon 2 had been pegged for the May 7 undercard to the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley pay-per-view. But Soto is in a dispute with the aforementioned Top Rank. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com describes the situation well:
“Soto, claiming he is owed more than $1 million by Top Rank and that his promotional agreement with the company is expired, has declared himself a free agent.”
If the claims are true, Soto’s dispute is understandable but a bummer. You’d love to see a potential repeat of a battle like Soto-Antillon happen under the major spotlight of a Pacquiao pay-per-view. But if Soto’s owed money, it’s hard to blame him for putting off possibly going through hell again.
4. Amir Khan vs. Paul McCloskey was forgettable. And then Berto-Ortiz and Lopez-Salido ensured that we’ve since forgotten all about it.
5. It’s official: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is better than Sugar Ray Leonard…
…at “Dancing with the Stars,” that is.
Leonard was booted from the reality dancing competition last week ¬– the fourth week of competition. He was the third person out.
Mayweather competed in fall 2007 and was the fourth person out.
Both are still better than Evander Holyfield, who was on in summer 2005 and was the second person eliminated.
The best boxer to appear on the show remains Laila Ali, who made it to the finals in spring 2007. She finished in third place.
No more of this, please. I’d like my testicles back.
6. Who’s next? George Foreman?
7. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Former 168-pound title challenger Rick Thornberry has been sentenced to two years behind bars after pleading guilty to driving around an Australia city with more than 12 grams of methamphetamine and a loaded semi-automatic, according to The Courier-Mail.
Sounds like the best kind of person to party with.
Thornberry, 43, was 27-5 as a pro fighter, with losses in title bouts against Joe Calzaghe and Sven Ottke.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: A 41-year-old designated opponent got coverage from The Washington Post. Alas, that’s because he’s been found guilty of assaulting his wife.
Ron Boyd was convicted of “choking and repeatedly punching his wife” after seeing her hug another man at a bar in April 2010, the report said. Boyd’s wife was shot and killed seven months later; there haven’t been any charges filed against anyone in her death.
Boyd’s sentencing is scheduled for June 3. He fought from 2003 to 2010, going 6-11-1 with two knockouts.
9. I’ve never been able to watch the fight scenes in the “Rocky” movies – too unrealistic. And yet…
And yet I couldn’t help but enjoy the four-round swing bout – and boy was “swing bout” an apt description for the way the guys fought – between Mike Gavronski and Tyrell Hendrix on last week’s episode of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
Give these guys a rematch on another “Friday Night Fights” undercard. Give them a healthy bump in pay. They deserve it. And they’ll still give the promoter his money’s worth.
10. Dear Floyd and Roy,
I just filed my income taxes. How ‘bout you?
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.
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