Victor Ortiz chases his dream?purportedly a recurring one since he was a mere nine years old?to its dramatic conclusion tomorrow night when he faces Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Of course, it is hard to imagine a child getting much news about Olympic bronze medalists in a trailer park in Garden City, Kansas, back in the mid-1990s, but in boxing, a good narrative should never have to give way to facts.
A solid shortender entering his bout against Mayweather, the multi-talented part-time fighter and 24/7 spectacle, Ortiz has been defiant about his status as an underdog. After being knocked senseless and forced to quit against Marcos Maidana in 2009, Ortiz spent nearly two years rebuilding his career against an assortment of flotsam and jetsam. Now, on the heels of his biggest victory?an exciting 12-round dust-up against Andre Berto last April?Ortiz looks to make his dreams of distinction a reality.
Over the last few months, Ortiz, 29-2-2 (22), has revealed himself as one of the new eccentrics of boxing. Obsessed by Harry Potter, a competitor in triathlons, and with a seething contempt for the media, Ortiz has appeared audaciously confident since the pre-fight buildup against Berto. He carried that self-assurance into the ring against ?The Human Bermuda Triangle of Boxing? as well. Revved up in his own corner before the sound of the opening bell, Ortiz charged after Berto and promptly hammered his fellow enigma into the canvas. In a battle of boxing chimeras, Ortiz came out on top, drubbing Berto for 9 out of 12 rounds, and emerging with a UNICEF welterweight title and an instant reputation.
Still, it is hard to gloss over the fact that Ortiz, 24, has accomplished all that he has accomplished in his career over the course of 36 minutes with Berto. After all, two fights ago, Ortiz struggled to a draw with middling Lamont Peterson, and his post-Maidana form seemed skittish at best. Simply put, Victor Ortiz has done nothing to suggest that he belongs in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. The only way, it seems, for Ortiz to derail the Money Train is to hope that inactivity has coated its wheels, axles, and brake shoes with enough rust to slow it down enough for Ortiz to handle. Ortiz does, however, enter the fight with a few advantages over Mayweather: he is bigger, younger, hits harder, and, perhaps most troublesome of all for Mayweather, he is a southpaw.
Since his last fight, against Shane Mosley in 2010, Mayweather, 41-0 (25), has put a few more touches on his image as a lout, scofflaw, WWE wannabe, and perpetual litigant. All of this is the ultraswoopy stuff of dreams for an online strokehouse like fighthype.com, but most boxing fans would rather see Mayweather translate his Sin City m.o. into a little more action in the ring.
At 34, with 16 months of inactivity to dull his superb reflexes and perhaps even his ?quick-twitch muscles,? Mayweather is starting to look a little slower than he has in previous fights, adopting a fairly stationary style and punching with a more economical precision than when he was an active professional. These days, Mayweather, Las Vegas, Nevada, usually throws around 40 punches per round. No doubt Mayweather will be looking to make each punch count against Ortiz, a fighter who often gets tangled up by his own feet and who is wide open when he attacks. Even some of the brief sparring clips aired on ?24/7? show Ortiz taking a running start before breaking off a combination. His forward momentum often leaves him a bit off-balance, squared-up, and, at times, too close to his opponent. Make no mistake, this is what Mayweather noted from ringside in Connecticut when he watched Ortiz and Berto square off.
