Los Angeles, California – If I were Victor Ortiz, I’d never headline a fight at the Staples Center again. Just a year ago, he was in the conversation as one of the top challengers for the sport’s best in Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Today, it’s almost as if his days as an elite fighter has come and gone. View slideshow: Victor Ortiz vs. Josesito Lopez gallery
With a big Pay-Per-View showdown waiting for him against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September, all Ortiz had to do was dispatch Josesito Lopez, a last minute replacement subbing in for Andre Berto who was caught with an illegal substance in his system during the voluntary drug testing both fighters signed up for prior to their fight. Advertisement
Nobody ever said that Lopez was a pushover. But certainly, the expectation was for Ortiz, the former WBC welterweight champion, to take care of business and move on to bigger things.
He could not.
Instead, Lopez, a crafty and hard-nosed fighter, found himself celebrating the victory of his career, when Ortiz could not answer the bell after the ninth round. Lopez had broken Ortiz’s jaw, if not his spirit, with one of his crushing hooks that connected all night.
But this wasn’t the Victor Ortiz that folded to Marcos Maidana almost exactly three years ago to the date. Or was it?
Ortiz was on the cusp of becoming one of the sport’s brightest young stars, when he decided that he did not deserve to take the amount of punishment he was getting at the hands of the hard-hitting Argentinian in the 6th round of their June 27 showdown back in 2009.
Ortiz was being hailed as “the next Golden Boy” at the time. Although it may not have been for the original purpose, Ortiz did look like “the next Golden Boy” last night, as he yet again decided to quit on a fight, reminiscent of the original Golden Boy’s last fight.
And as one great Filipino boxer once told me: “Boxing is 10% physical, 90% mental.”
Ortiz did put up a fight. He landed some big shots, and if not for the broken jaw, would have probably been able to squeeze out a victory in the scorecards. This wasn’t exactly like 2009 against Maidana. He had a legitimate reason. But in the unforgiving world of boxing, does it even really matter? At the end of the day, all the people will remember is that Ortiz quit–again.
