Victor Ortiz probably wasn?t old enough to drive a car when he was first compared to Oscar De La Hoya. He was 5-0 as a pro before he turned 18 and his talent was obvious to anyone who had seen more than two fights previously.
He was fast, he could punch and he was aggressive.
A fighter will win a lot of fights on talent alone. Talent, though, isn?t enough when facing equally talented fighters who want to win so badly, they?ll endure almost anything to do so.
Ortiz never seemed like that guy and he was derided as soft and labeled a quitter by many in the media. On Saturday, fighting for his first world title, Ortiz combined his dazzling talent with the tenacity, courage and grit we never knew he had. The result was a one-sided beatdown of Andre Berto at the MGM Grand in Ledyard, Conn., broadcast in front of a national television audience on HBO, which suddenly thrusts him squarely into the upper echelon of the sport.
It wasn?t 10 minutes after Ortiz?s unanimous decision victory over Berto for the World Boxing Council welterweight title in a scintillating fight that an HBO boxing analyst was mentioning his name in the same sentence as Manny Pacquiao?s and Floyd Mayweather Jr.?s.
It was quite the turnaround for a guy who after a 2009 loss to Marcos Maidana said he didn?t deserve to take that kind of punishment.
Ortiz, 24, knocked Berto down twice and landed more clean, hard shots than the red robot ever did on the blue in the kid?s game, ?Rock ?Em, Sock ?Em Robots.?
?I fought like a possessed man because that?s what the world and the crowd and boxing made me,? Ortiz said after winning a unanimous decision by scores of 115-110, 114-112 and 114-111. ?It went as far as everybody denying me and saying what I?m capable of and what I?m not capable of. I know what is in my heart.?
It was precisely his heart that was questioned, but he may have erased those forever on Saturday. He jumped to the welterweight division from super lightweight after a disappointing draw with Lamont Peterson in December in which Ortiz seemed to coast down the stretch.
But he was in phenomenal shape on Saturday and appeared more heavily muscled than the heavily muscled Berto. He was consistently hurting Berto and put him down and nearly out in the first.
Berto knocked Ortiz down in the second, but unlike past battles when he seemed to shy from the action, Ortiz plunged in this time. Berto still was in the fight after eight, but Ortiz closed strong and had Berto hanging on by the finish. His legs were gone and the starch was lost from his punches as a result of the leather he was continually eating.
The problem with Berto was obvious, though he claimed after the bout that ?I wasn?t there tonight.?
The reason he wasn?t is that he has been coddled by a protective manager, Al Haymon, and given essentially a junior varsity squad for opponents. He made millions of dollars and had never faced any of the elite men in or around his weight class.
That was brilliant managing by Haymon, but it was extremely poor judgment on the part of the HBO Sports boxing executives who kept putting him on their air without insisting he get into a real fight.
He found himself in a real fight on Saturday and he wasn?t up to the task, though he clearly has plenty of talent.
?I wasn?t surprised the way he tore into me,? said Berto, who lost for the first time in 28 professional fights. ?I knew he would come out the way he did.?
They both fought like they were battling over something sacred, but no matter how many rights to the chin Berto landed, Ortiz didn?t wilt. The previous incarnation of Ortiz had melted far too often, but this time he grinned like a madman and fired back, hard and often.
Ortiz, who weighed 161 by the time he walked to the ring, said he had noticed on tape that Berto struggled on the inside. But Ortiz won this fight, surprisingly, as much with his heart and determination as with any strategic move he made. He wanted to win more than Berto and he went out and did it.
?I saw that he was vulnerable fighting inside,? Ortiz said. ?He?s a great fighter, very powerful, but I didn?t fear his power at all. I had no respect for the world champion. But I wanted it that badly, though. I knew there was a possibility of him connecting me and you know what? He did connect me. That was my bad. I didn?t listen to my coaches on one occasion. I dropped my left hand. He caught me right on the mouth and put me down, but I managed to get up, controlled myself and came back.
?I think I was highly underestimated because of the fact I moved up from 140 to 147, but I have a pretty big body. I knew I carried as much power as him, if not more.?
And while it wouldn?t be fair to say that Berto showed a lack of heart, he seemed out of his element when he wasn?t the guy with the overwhelming talent advantage. This time, he was in a fight with a guy every bit as skilled as he was and he was struggling for answers. His corner was a mess and too many were talking at once to be of any use to him.
It?s now Berto who has some soul searching. Given Haymon?s history and HBO?s acquiescence to Haymon?s nearly every want, it?s likely he?ll be given a highly paid tune-up fight to come back.
That, though, would be wrong, not only for the fans who have to pay for the premium cable channel in order to see the fights, but also for Berto. He needs to experience what it?s like fighting real fighters.
He fought one on Saturday not many expected to see. But it showed those who raved about him eight or 10 years ago knew what they were talking about. It just took Ortiz a while to prove them right.
