PLAN TO BE VICIOUS BACKFIRES ON ORTIZ
New York, NY= Controversy follows new WBC champ, Floyd Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) like his Twitter fans and last nights bout with Victor Ortiz proved no different. Although many fans remain divided on the merit of his victory over former champ, Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22KOs), I don’t believe he was in the wrong. Floyd Mayweather cleanly won his bout via a clean knockout despite many calling it classless. Below are the reasons why.
VICTOR PLANNED TO FIGHT DIRTY
When I saw Victor purposely head butt Floyd, I was not surprised. This is due to the fact that Joseph Santoliquito of Ring Magazine let the cat out of the bag a few days before the fight. He released information on a boxing podcast and mentioned that Victor slipped with him a bit. He let Joe know that he planned to fight dirty. At the time, I thought it was an interesting revelation as Santoliquito appeared sure that fouls were absolutely in the game plan for Team Ortiz.
VICTOR WANTED ‘ELBOW ROOM’ TO JUSTIFY FOULS
What made the planned fouls more interesting is the fact that Danny Garcia and team Ortiz complained on HBO’s 24/7 and immediately before the fight to referee, Joe Cortez about Floyd’s use of his elbows. As a precursor, they painted Floyd as a cheater who unfairly used his elbows to win fights. Although there were no obvious elbow infractions in last nights bout, it’s telling that Victor lead with a fowl of his own, almost as a planned counter attack to throw Floyd out of rhythm. This was clearly a fowl that was the first of many planned for the evening.
THE KNOCKOUT WAS CLEAN & CONVINCING
The first rule of boxing is, ‘Protect Yourself At All Times’. If you know anything about the sport, you know this phrase. So why would anyone be surprised that Ortiz was clocked for standing in front of his opponent with his hands down. Floyd has taken advantage of previous opponents for this infraction before. I remember Floyd knocking down Arturo Gatti in a similar circumstance as well as punching Shane Mosley the same way in his last bout. It’s clearly a part of Floyd’s arsenal and if Ortiz had half a brain he would has been prepared for that.
ORTIZ SETS HIMSELF UP TO LOSE!
While I am disappointed in how the fight ended, I can’t say that Floyd’s two piece special was totally classless due to the reasons above. I am more surprised that Ortiz was unable to recover and that he planned on fouling his opponent in the first place in order to win. It obviously backfired and he has no one to blame but himself. He didn’t look like he cared either way and at the end of the day, that’s just who he is.
Jarrad Woods