by David P. Greisman (photo by FightWireImages)
 
What could have been a Cinderella story started when Victor Ortiz was 12.
 
He had been abandoned by his mother years earlier. Ortiz’s father often would leave him and his siblings to fend for themselves.
 
But Ortiz was taken in by a tutor at his boxing gym in Garden City, Kan. She helped Ortiz focus on the sweet science, a fairy godmother who would put him on the path from rags to riches.
 
He had money. He had a future, too, as one of the top prospects in the sport, a junior welterweight headlining for the first time on HBO. The bout, against Marcos Maidana of Argentina, was for a sanctioning body’s “interim” world title, a lesser recognition that nevertheless could afford him greater opportunity.
 
What could have been a Cinderella story ended before 12.
 
It didn’t even last six.
 
The bout was stopped 46 seconds into the sixth round. Ortiz had gone down after a left hook to the body, beaten mentally, bleeding from a cut above his right eye. There was swelling around his left eye.
 
The end was in sight.
 
The same could have been said five rounds earlier.
 
Ortiz had just missed with a jab halfway into that first round. Maidana began to throw a right hand, but Ortiz, a southpaw, landed a short right hook first. Maidana dropped straight down.
 
Ortiz had made a habit of ending his fights early. His past nine wins had come before the final bell. Three of those knockouts came in the fifth. Three of those knockouts came in the second. And two came in this very stanza, the opening round.
 
Maidana took his mandatory eight-count from the referee, Raul Caiz Sr. The fight resumed, and Ortiz seemed to skip forward, looking to finish it.
 
Maidana threw a jab, which Ortiz blocked. Maidana followed with a right cross. Again, Ortiz launched a right hook. This time, Maidana landed first.
 
Ortiz fell backward. He got up on unsteady legs.
 
If Ortiz wanted to dance, Maidana was more than ready to lead. Only one of Maidana’s 25 victories had gone the distance. Twenty-two of those knockouts came within the first four rounds.
 
The first round ended. After three minutes, each man had his bell rung.
 
They would keep cracking until one of them cracked.
 
Another right hook from Ortiz led to another knockdown, this one with 30 seconds to go in the second round. Maidana stood up quickly, walked to a neutral corner and then kneeled again, needing more time to recover. He beat the count and stood up for more.
 
Again, Ortiz rushed in. Maidana couldn’t capitalize. Instead, Ortiz backed Maidana up with a barrage of punches, and Maidana again took a knee, though involuntarily, the result of an Ortiz right hook.
 
Ortiz had thrown 39 punches in that second round, landing 21. All of those were power punches.
 
This was a firefight. Ortiz would wind up burned.
 
Sometimes Cinderella has a jump shot. Sometimes Cinderella has a right cross. Ortiz wasn’t the only Cinderella in the ring.
 
Every year in the NCAA basketball tournament, a less-acclaimed, lower-ranked team will score the upset against a more-accomplished, elite-conference school, advancing farther in the Big Dance.
 
Ortiz was the touted prospect who had become the favored contender. Maidana was a relative unknown who had power but was slower and had fewer dimensions than Ortiz.
 
If Maidana could defeat Ortiz, he would make a name for himself and be on the verge of that which already seemed promised to his opponent.
 
He was the spoiler.
 
Ortiz fought Maidana’s fight, brawling instead of boxing, throwing plenty of hooks and crosses but little in the way of jabs. Ortiz did away with his technique. Maidana made do with his timing.
 
Maidana punched when Ortiz punched. With about a minute to go in the fifth round, they exchanged left hands, Ortiz taking the harder shot. A cut opened above Ortiz’s right eye.
 
Maidana punched when Ortiz stopped moving. A looping right hand landed when Ortiz had his back to the ropes, snapping Ortiz’s head backward.
 
“Victor, how are you feeling?” Ortiz’s trainer said between rounds as his fighter sat silently in the corner.
 
“Victor, do you want me to stop the fight?” his trainer said. “I’m going to stop it. I’m going to stop it because you’re bringing down your guard. You‘re bringing down your guard. What’s wrong, Victor? Come on, Victor, react. React. I’m going to stop it. Give it all.”
 
Ortiz had little left to give.
 
Maidana started the sixth quickly, hitting Ortiz with another right hand. Ortiz retreated to the ropes, and then to the red corner, doing little to defend himself and less to deter the man attacking him.
 
They moved away from the red corner, but Maidana landed again with his right hand, and Ortiz moved into a neutral corner. Ortiz bobbed, weaved and then fell to the mat following a left hook to his body.
 
He rose from the canvas, walking away as Caiz counted from behind him.
 
“You okay, son?” Caiz asked. “Let’s go.”
 
Ortiz turned his head to his right, away from Caiz, as if to decline the offer.
 
Caiz called the ringside physician to the apron. The doctor looked at the cut over Ortiz’s right eye, the blood coming from it and the expression on the fighter’s face.
 
The doctor told Caiz to stop the fight.
 
Ortiz didn’t protest.
 
“I was hurt,” Ortiz said in a post-fight interview. “I’m not going to go out on my back. I’m not going to lay down for nobody. I’m going to stop while I’m ahead. That way I can speak well when I’m older. May the best man win, and tonight, he was the best man.
 
“I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to be getting beat up like this,” Ortiz said. “I have a lot of thinking to do.”
 
Mixed martial artists can acknowledge defeat, tapping out to submit, giving up without losing any pride. Boxers, for some reason, are rarely afforded the same option. They are labeled, quite unfortunately, as quitters, often by fans who expect them – men who already are brave enough to step into the ring –  also to be warriors who fight to the death.
 
Ortiz gave in mentally before giving in physically, giving in before the fight hit 12, ending his Cinderella story with the glass slipper that was his confidence shattered into pieces. 

The 10 Count 

1.  Looking to win the lottery? Get your numbers from Doug Fischer of RingTV.com, whose time spent watching Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana train led to this wise observation:
 
“All of Ortiz’s talent and technique can quickly go out the window if he gets clocked by a clean punch from Maidana,” Fischer wrote.
 
Yep. 

2.  Last year, Floyd Mayweather Jr. took on wrestler The Big Show at WrestleMania 24.
 
This year, Manny Pacquiao has signed on to  fill the hero role in a movie called “Wapakman,” while wrestler Batista, who has a Filipino background, will play the villain, according to GMANews.tv.
 
What next? Bernard Hopkins and Ric Flair in a remake of “Forever Young”? 

3.  A few boxers paid tribute Saturday to Michael Jackson, the famed “King of Pop” who died last week.
 
In Los Angeles, Victor Ortiz walked to the ring to music from “Beat It” and “Thriller.” In Boston, heavyweight Phil Miller came out dancing to “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” before his four-round victory over Steve Jaeger.
 
And in Atlantic City, there were rumors Olivier Lontchi would incorporate Jackson into his ring entrance. His loss to Juan Manuel Lopez saw him in survival mode for most of the night, running, clinching, throwing low blows and delivering headbutts.
 
As my colleague Jake Donovan put it, “He was more ‘Dirty Diana’ than ‘Thriller.’ ” 

4.  Boxers Preventing Others From Behaving Badly: Nate Campbell and his adviser helped police in Tampa, Fla., catch a pair of robbers, according to Fightnews.com
 
Campbell and Terry Trekas were walking out of a grocery store last week when they saw two men allegedly grab a purse from a woman who was putting her groceries into her vehicle. They chased after the men, who went into a nearby apartment and barricaded themselves inside.
 
Police soon showed up and arrested the men, who are suspects in at least six other strong-arm robberies, according to the report.
 
Not a bad run of events for Campbell. The previous week, his fight with junior-welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley was made official. Their bout is scheduled for Aug. 1 and will be broadcast on Showtime. 

5.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Demetrius Hopkins was supposed to have fought Saturday in Atlantic City on the undercard to the 122-pound title fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Olivier Lontchi. Instead, he was arrested the day before on an outstanding warrant for allegedly not paying child support.
 
Police put Hopkins in handcuffs before he could weigh-in for a fight against a welterweight named Hector Munoz. Hopkins allegedly owes at least $16,000 in child support payments. He was to have made $25,000 for the Munoz bout.
 
I echo boxing scribe George Kimball and BoxingScene’s own Rick Reeno, who both noted that authorities should have let Hopkins fight and get his paycheck before taking him into custody and then seizing some or all of his purse.
 
Hopkins, 28, last fought in December, losing a split decision in a junior-welterweight title fight against Kendall Holt. This is not the first time Hopkins has had drama on the day of the weigh-in. He failed to make weight last year for a fight with Juaquin Gallardo.
 
Hopkins is 28-1-1, with 11 knockout wins.

6.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Samson Mahlangu, a former heavyweight fighter from South Africa, is facing an extended prison term for robbing a bank in his country of  46 million rand, or approximately $5,829,074, according to The Sowetan.
 
Mahlangu, 42, has a criminal history, including a pair of convictions for possessing a firearm and ammunition. He apparently had been serving a five-year sentence for theft and was out on bail when he committed the robbery.
 
Mahlangu had an 8-9-1 record, fighting from 1987 through 1993 and then returning for a bout apiece in 2001 and 2002.

7.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part three: Brian Watson, a former heavyweight fighter who also played for a New England indoor football team, pleaded guilty last week to charges of possessing and distributing drugs, according to the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette.
 
Watson, 38, had been charged with being part of “a drug trafficking organization operating primarily in northeastern Connecticut,” according to the report. Watson was one of 22 people charged in the case. He pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine,” the newspaper said.
 
Watson fought 11 times between 1992 and 1999, winning six and losing five, including defeats to Zuri Lawrence and Jo-el Scott, heavyweights whose names might be recognizable to hardcore boxing fans.

8.  The welterweight bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez has been rescheduled for Sept. 19 on pay-per-view. They were initially supposed to meet July 18, but Mayweather suffered a rib injury in training camp.
 
The new date will take advantage of Mexico’s Independence Day, Sept. 16, which often has been kept in mind in recent years with programs scheduled so as to feature Mexican boxers.
 
Last year, Juan Manuel Marquez headlined against Joel Casamayor on Sept. 13. In 2006, Marco Antonio Barrera met Rocky Juarez on Sept. 16. Barrera also fought Sept. 17, 2005, against Robbie Peden. And Oscar De La Hoya was in the main event on Sept. 18, 2004, Sept. 13, 2003, and Sept. 14, 2002, against, respectively, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas.
 
 
9.  Amusingly, a number of conspiracies have been floated about several of the top fighters who recently had to pull out of fights with injuries.
 
I’ve seen rumors that David Haye withdrew from his challenge of Wladimir Klitschko because of the financial problems of Setanta, the television network with which Haye has a contract.
 
I’ve seen rumors that Mayweather postponed the Marquez bout because of poor ticket sales.
 
And this past Saturday’s show in Atlantic City was originally supposed to feature middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik against Sergio Mora. Pavlik’s promoter, Top Rank, scratched the fighter because of what it said was a staph infection on one of his hands. Pavlik’s camp disputed that, saying the staph infection was not the reason the fight was postponed.

10.  The next pullout could be mine. I can’t file my column until I get a buxom blonde to massage my shoulders while I write. But I’ll tell my editor the extra money is to treat carpal tunnel.

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com