During yesterday’s final press conference leading up to Saturday’s showdown, Victor Ortiz suggested that he sensed nervousness and fear coming from Floyd Mayweather. Throughout the promotion of this event, Ortiz and the members of his team have exuded a great deal of confidence as they dismissed Mayweather as a serious threat. Mayweather, however, sees an opponent who’s acting out of character; an opponent who may be lying to himself when it comes to the lack of respect he claims to have for the undefeated pound-for-pound champion. In fact, according to Mayweather, that’s not the only thing that he’s not being totally truthful about, as Mayweather revealed that Ortiz hasn’t been completely truthful regarding the story about his mother and father leaving him.
“You’ve seen Victor’s story, like I said, his story about his mother leaving, you know. I would never expose his hand and tell him that, you know, I know the real truth, that his father didn’t leave him, but it’s good for TV,” Mayweather remarked. “Yeah, his father didn’t leave. Yeah, and he went to high school in California. But I can do my homework. That’s my job, to do homework on certain individuals.”
Later that day, Mayweather would elaborate on the homework he did on the WBC welterweight champion, explaining that Robert Garcia first discovered Ortiz in Kansas while he was actually still living with his father. Recognizing his talent, Garcia offered to bring Ortiz to California, where he could train him while putting him through high school. Eventually, when Ortiz became older, he felt he could no longer deal with the training style of Robert Garcia, so he turned on the man who gave him a new life in California, asking Robert’s brother, Danny Garcia, to train him instead.
When Danny agreed, that began a feud between the Garcia brothers, as well as their star pupils Brandon Rios (trained by Robert) and Victor Ortiz (trained by Danny) that has continued to this day. It’s a feud that likely won’t end this Saturday, as Mayweather has extended an invitation to Robert Garcia, as well as Brandon Rios, to escort him to the ring and stand opposite Danny Garcia and Victor Ortiz moments before they face off.
