WBC welterweight champion “Vicious” Victor Ortiz will have a lot of things coming to him this Saturday night, September 17th 2011.
It will be the 24-year old Ortiz first defense of his welterweight belt, which he nabbed after an impressive unanimous decision over then undefeated Andre Berto. It will be Ortiz’s first megafight, as far as the definition of a megafight is concerned. It will be the Mexican-American’s first fight against an elite opposition.
For Floyd Mayweather, it will be another day in the office, despite the last time he clocked in was more than a year ago when he scored a lopsided win over the aging Shane Mosley. But Mayweather, as great as he still is, may be in for a tough night.
At 34 years old, the former pound-for-pound topper who held titles in five different weight classes, may no longer be in the same level as he was a year ago.
As you age, you lose your speed. Or so the adage goes.
Floyd Mayweather (left) is expected to win over Victor Ortiz (right), but boxing is an unpredictable sport.
And for ring warriors who relied so much on their speed and quick reflexes during their prime, especially when it comes to defense, losing that essential asset as they grow older meant getting tagged more often than they did when they were young.
Roy Jones. Wilfred Benitez. Muhammad Ali.
They were all speed demons. But they didn’t stay that way.
Can the same thing be said about Mayweather? It can be debated. But if glimpses of his training provided by the ever-prying cameras of 24/7 suggest, the guy is still fast. But will he be as fast as he was a year ago? Or is his age dictating his body to go on a slight decline?
If it’s the latter, then slight can be deadly inside the ring.
Ortiz holds a significant advantage in terms of power and youth. The fighter from Garden City, Kansas, a celebrated amateur, is also out to prove himself come fight night.
After beating Berto en route to a world title at welterweight, a victory over Mayweather, will put Ortiz in a perfect position to challenge fellow welterweight beltholder Manny Pacquiao.
But Mayweather is certainly no easy prey. A prizefighter who rightfully belongs to the topmost echelons of the sport, Mayweather boasts of ring acumen and a very phenomenal adjustment rate that enables him to adapt to whatever his opponents bring to the table.
If this was a contest of ring craft superiority and boxing skills, Mayweather should win this fight easily. But it’s hard to discount the heart of a champion and Ortiz has tons of it, as evidenced by the Berto fight. That said, the older Mayweather should be able to beat Ortiz handily.
Should, not would.
Photo credits: Infotech Garage
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Kenneth P. Ragpala is an award-winning sports blogger who has been covering the sport of boxing since 2008. His works have appeared in local newspapers in his home city in Cagayan de Oro and in several online publications abroad.
Ragpala has written for several boxing websites, namely Fight Hype, 8 Count News, and Bleacher Report.
Floyd floyd floyd. who freaking cares who and what betrays Floyd. He betray himself. one minute he would say ” yes, pacquiao you’re next” and the next minute would say ” i never said anything about fighting pacquiao, don’t put words into my mouth”. Without him knowing it, he just put a big brown Filipino D I C K into his own mouth. And probably needs to shove it into his own ass too.
Ya, i am one with you all of you guys, i will pay to see all his fights hope one day to see his ass whoopped in such shame an disgrace he forgets he is fighting for America to find out America don’t need him to fight for anything, but for himself.
Gosh if my son speaks to me like that I either shoot him or shoot myself, the way he did to floyd sr.
I AM AN AVID BOXING FOLLOWER. MONITORING WHAT’S GOING ON WITH PACMAN AND FLOYD. AT FIRST I REALLY DON’T WANT TO THINK AND CAN’T BELIEVE FLOYD IS SCARED OF PACQUIAO, BUT LOOK CLOSELY HOW FLOYD SAID ” PACQUIAO YOU’RE NEXT” WITH HIS JAW DROPPING AND ALL THAT FACIAL EXPRESSION, SLOW PLAY THE CLIP – YOU’LL SEE FLOYD IS JUST REALLY REALLY SCARED MAN!
THIS FLOYD IS JUST A COWARD. SEE IT FROM HIS FACE. WHOOOOOO!! SHAME ON YOU FLOYD!!! YOU ARE WORST THAN A FAGGOT, BECAUSE THEY STOOD UP AND FIGHT, YOU DON’T
All you wish can have fine steak after the fight, but win or Loss Vic Ortiz will put Gayweather ass for a month in bed.
I would love to see Ortiz knock him down a few times even if he can’t win. But the Angels would sing if Ortiz could win.
heres a picture, pacquiao throwing dozens of punches from different angles and amoving busy target. goes in and backs out… floyd naturaly defends. round 1-5 foyd starts to throw and times pacquiao, 1 point for each barrage of combo pacquiao lands. who do you think won in 5 rounds? more scores goes to pacquiao.
round 6-10. floyd lets his hands go, problem is this is what pacquiao is waiting for, just like clottey. natural defender, pacquiao waiting for clottey to punch back and when he did BOOM clottey got hit.
the whole fight would be barrage of punches, and every time floyd counters he opens up and that’s were floyd is open for a good clean punch. if floyd doesn’t counter all he will do is defend all night and lose to points. trainers knows this, that is why jess mayweather pushes the fight back to 2013 and all this excuses about peds and retiring. floyd fought 10% good fighters and the rest are bums. that’s how he keeps a good record.
yes, correct man. you nailed it!
AKT, oooh yeah, i saw that clip and hell of all hell, this nigger is a picture of scared neanderthal! I used to hate this blackman, but no more…i gave him the respite for all his idiosyncrasies – he’s just simply living his own life of narcissism.
one day, he’ll find out that something in his life is just a mirage.
ortiz should use his power and press floyd in the early rounds….he should not let floyd get away once cornered and dont fight him long distance…this is his only chance to defeat floyd…in hatton fight floyd was down in points in the early rounds when hatton pressed him and kept on coming to him…if it pass 8 rounds floyd would win….