By Lyle Fitzsimmons

In hindsight, I suppose I shouldn’t blame Victor Ortiz.

I was happy to get an interview last week because I genuinely like him, I think he’s a pretty good fighter and I also think – to a large extent – that he’s been unfairly hammered by an overfed media only too happy to pile on when a guy falls short of their arbitrary standards for machismo.

But then, when I got him on the phone and he was kind of, well… a jerk, I was angry.

It annoyed me because I wasn’t going to bombard him with the same questions about the Maidana fight and the Mayweather fight and the Lopez fight. Instead, I was genuinely interested in simply finding out where his head was at these days, and what he’s hoping to get out of his latest return.

In case you hadn’t heard, he’s fighting Manuel Perez on Saturday in Las Vegas, on the undercard of a show that’ll feature Amir Khan and Devon Alexander in the Showtime main event.

His fight with Perez was initially not planned for television, but subsequent updates from the network’s people tell me that the match will be indeed taped and, if time allows, shown in its entirety during the early evening broadcast carried by Showtime’s Extreme channel beginning at 7 p.m.

Anyway, instead of engaging in the thoughtful conversation I’d hoped to prompt, Ortiz’s answer to my initial “how are you feeling heading into this one” query pretty much bordered on the ludicrous.

“I’m gonna be one of the best of all time, just like Muhammad Ali was, just like (Julio Cesar) Chavez was,” he said. “I’ll be in the history books, for sure. Not that I’m not already, but I know what it takes to get there, I know I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

Ummmm, yeah.

Though I’ll concede to not knowing quite how he’d be able to top such a claim for the rest of our chat, it turned out I needn’t have worried. Rather than subsequently articulating his confidence in a manner other than over-the-top historical hyperbole, he decided to hunker down into full-on “the whole world’s against me, so I don’t care what anyone thinks” mode.

Actually, in his words, it was delivered more in a grammatical mish-mash.

“Everybody has their opinion and everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I, for one, am not relevant to whatever anyone has to say besides what I think about myself,” he said. “And what I think about myself is more important than what anybody has to say about me.”
 
Again. Ummmm, yeah.

Like I said earlier, I was initially pretty angry about the belligerence. But the more I recalled the ridiculous backs and forths laid on him throughout his career by the supposedly higher-functioning “Fight Freaks” among us, the more I was ready to cut him some slack for shutting down.

Lest we forget, the waffling recap of the Lopez fight on ESPN.com included blasts like “It's not the first time Ortiz has waived the white flag. His reputation as a quitter began in 2009,” followed five lines later by mention of the “warrior's heart” he’d displayed in a win over Andre Berto – in which he climbed off the floor twice to unanimously defeat a reigning champion who’d never lost.

Still, the next paragraph went back to slapping him with an ancient reference to Muhammad Ali against Ken Norton, before finally veering back and pointing out the injury Ortiz suffered indeed “was legit” and that he’d been “spitting streams of blood” in the ring and “could barely talk” in post-fight gatherings.

If everything written about me were thoughtless as that, I’d think twice about opening up, too.

So now, even though I cut the call short before it had reached five minutes, I’m wishing I’d have hung around for a few more exchanges. And if he wins Saturday night and begins another climb toward respectability – if not exactly immortality – I’ll happily get on the list to give it another crack.

Until then, this’ll have to suffice as a final word.

“Some people choose to live in the past. I restrain myself from that, it’s not worth it,” Ortiz said. “I feel like I’ve always felt. I am one of the greats. I’ll be and remain one of the greats, and that’s that. I’ll show you Dec. 13 what’s going to happen. I don’t have any goals. My eyes are on one person and one person only – Manny Perez, Dec. 13 at the MGM Grand – and that’s it. I’m ready.”

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

SATURDAY
IBO junior flyweight title – East London, South Africa
Rey Loreto (champion/No. 7 IWBR) vs. Nkosinathi Joyi (No. 7 contender/No. 13 IWBR)
Loreto (19-13, 11 KO): First title defense; Stopped Joyi to win vacant title in February (KO 3)
Joyi (24-3, 17 KO): Eleventh title fight (7-3); Held IBO and IBF titles at 105 pounds
Fitzbitz says: The kid got the job done when they met on neutral turf 10 months ago, but something tells me that a return to familiar surroundings will let Joyi even the score and win a belt. Joyi by decision
 
Vacant WBO middleweight title – Las Vegas, Nev.
Matt Korobov (No. 1 contender/No. 21 IWBR) vs. Andy Lee (No. 4 contender/No. 19 IWBR)
Korobov (24-0, 14 KO): First title fight; Second fight against opponent who’s won five straight (1-0)
Lee (33-2, 23 KO): Second title fight (0-1); Lost WBC title shot against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012
Fitzbitz says: Got to give Bob Arum credit for getting a guy a title shot for a win over the likes of Jose Uzcategui, and little else. Lee may get steamrolled, but it’s a lesser of two evils pick. Lee by decision

MONDAY
IBO featherweight title – East London, South Africa
Lusanda Komanisi (champion/No. 41 IWBR) vs. Roli Gasca (unranked/No. 58 IWBR)
Komanisi (17-3, 16 KO): First title defense; Unbeaten since 2009 (13-0, 12 KO)
Gasca (22-5-1, 6 KO): Third title fight (0-2); Lost two tries for IBO title at 122 pounds (2012, 2014)
Fitzbitz says: Gasca’s two reaches at IBO jewelry fell short one class south, and he rises to meet a guy who’s not exactly feasted on the top level, but has stopped nearly everyone he’s been fed. Komanisi in 7

Last week's picks: None
2014 picks record: 86-27 (76.1 percent)
Overall picks record: 631-221 (74.1 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.