By Thomas Gerbasi
When it comes to fighting style, background, and their current place in the boxing world, you probably couldn’t find two more different people than Samuel Peter and Victor Ortiz.
Ortiz is the new ‘Golden Boy’ of Golden Boy Promotions – charismatic, articulate, owner of a classic backstory, and a win or two away from a world title shot.
Peter is gruff with the media, equally so with his opponents, and for a brief moment in time he reached the top of the heap in a heavyweight division in dire need of some excitement, but then faded into the woodwork with the rest of the pretenders.
This month, both return to the ring in fairly high profile bouts. Ortiz faces former world champion Vivian Harris on the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora undercard at STAPLES Center on September 18th. A week earlier, Peter looks to regain a portion of the heavyweight title when he rematches Wladimir Klitschko at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, Germany.
Two different fights, two different countries, one common theme, and that’s redemption.
Peter, who after losing lackluster back-to-back fights to Klitschko’s brother Vitali and Eddie Chambers in 2008-09 miraculously found himself in a title fight after defeating the Murderers Row of Marcus McGee, Ronald Bellamy, Gabe Brown, and Nagy Aguilera, knows what the score is career wise. As he said during a recent teleconference, “I have a lot to prove. I have a chance to redeem myself from the 2005 fight. This time I am going to prove that I can become a champion again.”
In 2005, Peter put Wladimir Klitschko on the deck three times but was virtually shut out the rest of the way en route to a 12 round unanimous decision loss. It was the first defeat of Peter’s career, but it really didn’t put the type of dent in his future that you thought it would. He was still a knockout artist who could take you out with one clubbing shot, and that type of MO will always get you a big fight in the heavyweight division, as September 11th’s bout proves.
Back in the States, the southpaw Ortiz was never blessed with the type of power Peter brings to the ring, but with enough pop to knock opponents out, an exciting style, looks, the backing of Golden Boy, and an HBO push, he didn’t need it. All the Kansas native needed to do was climb each step of the prospect ladder, and everything would be, pardon the pun, golden.
And for the most part, everything went according to plan, and few avoided jumping on the Ortiz bandwagon. He blasted out solid opponents Jeffrey Resto and Mike Arnaoutis in successive bouts, and when he was pitted against unknown Argentinean Marcos Maidana in an interim junior welterweight bout in June of 2009, it was expected not to be a fight, but a coronation.
Maidana had other ideas, and the two traded five knockdowns before the bout’s conclusion in the sixth round, when the ringside physician decided that a cut over Ortiz’ right eye was too severe for him to continue. Fair enough. These things happen. But when Ortiz said after the bout, “I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to get beat up like this,” longtime boxing observers cringed while prospective opponents licked their lips.
Forget the fact that Ortiz gave as good as he got throughout the bout. The ending and the post-fight comments painted a scarlet letter on his back that would be hard to shake. Case in point, the recent teleconference for the September 18th fight, when Harris told the assembled media, “He (Ortiz) is a great young fighter coming up, but I think that he has a lot of doubts when it comes to himself. I don't really think that he's confident when it comes to beating people, getting there, to be where he's supposed to be. He has a lot of talent, don't get me wrong, but you have to believe in yourself and I definitely don't think he does.”
Ortiz simply responded, “I kind of find that a little funny, but to each his own. Everyone has their own opinion, but I'm comfortable with me and I know what I'm capable of doing.”
Heart, or lack thereof, was never seen as the issue with Sam Peter. His issue, according to those in the fight game, was a lack of desire, a refusal to put in his time in the gym and listen to his trainers, and a level of underachievement that was hard to fathom. He had the physical tools, had the opportunities, but when it came time to put his foot on the gas and take the division by force, it didn’t happen. Sure, he could take out a Taurus Sykes or Julius Long with extreme prejudice, but he barely got by James Toney in their first fight, almost got knocked out by Jameel McCline, and slept through his fights with Vitali Klitschko and Eddie Chambers, admitting that the loss to Chambers in March of 2009 was rock bottom for him.
“Everything was frustrating at that time,” he said. “I had lost the championship and the promotion was so bad.”
So was Peter, but for him and Ortiz, boxing is the perfect sport because it is the most forgiving. This is the same sport that welcomed Roberto Duran back into its loving arms in 1983, nearly three years after he surrendered to Sugar Ray Leonard in their famous “No Mas” rematch. All it took was for Duran to put his head down, win fights, and then beat a young, strong champion in Davey Moore in front of a raucous crowd of supporters who wanted him to not only win the title, but to earn their trust again.
Victor Ortiz is no Roberto Duran (who is?), but he’s done what’s been asked of him since his darkest hour as a professional. He’s won three in a row, stopping Antonio Diaz and Hector Alatorre, and decisioning Nate Campbell. None of that trio pack the punch of Maidana though, and Harris, a former world champion, certainly does, even if he’s on the south side of his nearly 13-year career. And he knows that with his power, he can change the course of a fight with a single blow.
“I'm a fighter and I know digging deep in there,” said Harris. “Sometimes you're in the ring and you feel like you're going to die. You've just got to dig deep. I don't think he has that kind of mental state. (But) It really doesn't matter to me, my goal is to just come in and execute. I'm a different fighter than Maidana. I hit harder than Maidana. I'm a different fighter than Nate Campbell. I'm a far different fighter than Nate Campbell and the last two kids that he fought. I'm a sharp shooter. My sharp shooting is definitely going to land. I know once I land, he's got to question himself. I hope he doesn't get flashbacks.”
That kind of talk is going to follow Ortiz and be his curse until a) he fights and beats Maidana or b) he engages in the kind of war that he waged with Maidana the first time. Only the second time around, he either wins or proves to the public that he is worthy of their ticket money and praise. This is a rough game when it comes to dealing with the public and their sometimes outsized expectations, but make no mistake about it, there are no cowards making the walk up those four steps.
Sam Peter knows this, and he knows that for all the talk about Wladimir Klitschko after his last loss against Lamon Brewster in 2004, there’s no dog in “Dr. Steelhammer”, and his knowledge of this fact comes first hand, considering that each of the three times he knocked Klitschko down in their first bout, the Ukrainian got back up. Five years later, Peter is saying all the things you expect to hear from a hungry challenger:
“He has not improved. He is still right, right, left, right. Jab, left hook. He doesn’t improve. This time it will be different.”
“I will be bringing my own judge and referee to Germany on September 11.”
“This time around anyone I touch will not be standing up. I don’t think Wladimir will be able to stand me after four rounds.”
Ortiz is a little less animated, choosing simply to address his opponent with the words, “I'll see you Saturday, September 18th.”
And frankly, that’s all that needs to be said. Fights are won and lost in the ring, and fighters are made within those same ropes. Victor Ortiz and Sam Peter are both going to be tested in September, by vastly different opponents in vastly different ways. But each fighter has something to prove, to those opponents, to the world, but mainly, to themselves. And while they probably won’t admit it, by the end of the month, we will know a little bit more about who they really are.
