By Chris Robinson
Word recently hit that the May 5th ‘Ring Kings’ blockbuster headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s victory over Miguel Cotto generated 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, the second highest-grossing non-heavyweight attraction of all time.
Certainly impressive numbers and one key individual, former welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, was one of those tuning in because of his vested interest in the show.
“Definitely, I saw the fight,” said the 25-year old Ortiz of Mayweather’s unanimous decision triumph. “I thought Mayweather dominated, but I definitely thought the scores were a lot closer than they showed.”
Asked if Cotto, who applied tremendous pressure throughout the fight, showed him anything in defeat, Ortiz seemed to tip his hat to the Puerto Rican bomber.
“You know what? I usually watch fights to see what can be done and how to beat somebody,” said Ortiz, who himself suffered a 4th round knockout loss to Mayweather this past September under bizarre circumstances. “He definitely showed a lot. I do realize that he has a little more experience in the sense of being wiser and older.”
The chief support on the ‘Ring Kings’ undercard was a fairly entertaining albeit one-sided brawl between young Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and the greatly-respected Shane Mosley. And while the 40-year old Mosley mustered up more fortitude than he had shown in recent years, Alvarez won the fight handily, cracking Shane with some wicked combinations along the way.
Over the past few weeks there has been a little online back and forthing taking place between Ortiz and Alvarez. Victorstarted things off by saying that Alvarez basically got the WBC junior middleweight title that he now holds for ‘free’ with his March 2011 decision over the very-limited Matthew Hatton, while Alvarez would return fire by saying that Ortiz should worry about his own career.
So it’s not too surprising when one learns that Ortiz wasn’t exactly blown away by Alvarez’s effort against Mosley.
“I was not impressed with him and Shane,” said Ortiz smugly. “Don’t get me wrong, Canelo, he’s a good guy. But speaking boxing and anybody who knows boxing, I’m sure they would agree with me. Mosley, I love Mosley, he’s a great idol to me and always has been and I will never talk any gibberish towards Mosley.
“I have respect and love his style of boxing, but come on, let’s be real,” Ortiz added. “Canelo is being set up just perfect. What happens when the young cub Canelo meets a young lion like me?”
If anything, it seems like Ortiz is just a little disappointed that Alvarez hasn’t been testing himself against the division’s elite.
“Canelo, he has to prove himself,” said Ortiz. “He hasn’t fought any of the top ten contenders in his weight class. I’m sure all them guys are pretty upset too. More than anything, I’m just like ‘Wow, that’s really not boxing’.”
But Ortiz knows fully well that he has business of his own to handle in the form of a June 23rd rematch with Andre Berto at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Ortiz won their first meeting after overcoming two knockdowns in an electrifying battle but he saw the rematch get postponed from the scheduled February 11th date when Berto ruptured his left bicep during training on January 31st.
Asked if it was hard to regain his focus after seeing the fight pushed back, Ortiz spoke with the kind of confidence that lets you know he’s going to be ready for another barnburner.
“No, not at all. I took this as even more motivation,” Ortiz would say. “I kind of figured it gave me more time to prepare even better and kind of fine-tune myself even more. I was ready to go the first fight but right now I think I’m just about ready for anything. I know I am actually.”
