By Michael Marley
To hear the Vicious Victor Ortiz camp tell it, there's only one cinch with a fight involving undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto.
It's a cinch, manager Rolando Arellano said, that the long-armed Berto will clinch and clinch excessively on Saturday night.
"We're going to alert the referee (expected to be Steve Smoger)," Arellano told me just before a press conference was held at the Armory on West 168 Street in Washington Heights on Wednesday.
"We want to call attention to the excessive holding, the constant clinching that has marked and marred so many of Berto's past fights," Arellano said.
Chief trainer for Ortiz is Danny Garcia, older brother of the more well known Robert Garcia. The two Garcias continue to feud, a split which heavily involves Ortiz, but more details on that telenovela later.
Most often cited example of Berto's penchant for holding was his points victory over Brooklyn lefty Luis Collazo. In that bout held in Mississippi, referee Keith Hughes penalized Berto one point for doing so after three warnings and 27 clinches.
Let the bleating begin.
It should be pointed out that the fourth round penalty point was assessed in a victory which was one of Berto's best overall performances. Berto now owns a 27-0 record with 21 KOs, while the sometimes erratic but always hard-hitting Ortiz stands 28-2-2 with 22 knockouts.
It's unusual for pre-fight complaints to come from a fighter's camp before they even arrive at the venue. Team Ortiz was en route to the MGM Grand at Foxwoods right after the presser.
Arellano, who used to co-manage Ferocious Fernando Vargas, said clinching and otherwise gripping or smothering opponents is a regular bad habit for Berto.
For his part, Ortiz said he will use other measures to stop the clinching if he must.
"We know he does all that holding. We've seen three fights where he was holiding eight to 10 times in each round. I let the ref just do his job...but if he doesn't, I will do what I have to do and it won't be pretty."
You don't think Mr. Ortiz is talking about hitting low, do you?
Well, they do call refer to him as Vicious.