Floyd Mayweather JR: Is Victor Ortiz Too Risky?
By Geno McGahee
On September 17th, Floyd Mayweather, JR., 41-0, 25 KO’s, makes his return to the ring and people are all screaming for a Manny Pacquiao showdown, which is no surprise. We’ve wanted it for some time now, but there are two men that are going to be trying to stop the collision. For Floyd, he will be facing WBC Welterweight Champion, Victor Ortiz, 29-2-2, 22 KO’s, while Pacquiao tries to take care of some unfinished business in the third act of a trilogy with Juan Manuel Marquez in November.
Ortiz is only 24 years old. He’s hungry and reminds many of a young Fernando Vargas. He is a southpaw with good power and understands what this fight means to him. Even though he moved up from light welterweight, he does not appear to be a weak welterweight. He grew into the division well and took the title from a strong guy in Andre Berto.
Mayweather has been known to pick his spots, as he did with the smaller Juan Manuel Marquez and the older Sugar Shane Mosley. Both men presented great name value, but not great challenges, and Ortiz is hand-selected, but did Floyd miscalculate?
We haven’t seen Floyd in the ring since his May 2010 fight with Mosley. Granted, he’s a gym rat and you don’t see him walking around town at 250 pounds, but he is only human and sparring is not the same as being in front of the big lights. Nobody handles it better than Floyd, but Ortiz will be trying to catch him and if he’s rusty, there lies the chance for the younger fighter to land and get an upset KO win.
Two fights that may be pointed to are Lamont Peterson and Marcos Maidana when lessening the chances of an Ortiz victory. Against Peterson, he had some issues with the technique. He followed him around, rather than being as aggressive as he should have been. He allowed Peterson to dictate the tempo and the end result was a draw.
In 2009, he took on the tough and power-punching Marcos Maidana, and after a brutal war, Ortiz decided to quit, and he has still to live it down in the boxing community. His gutsy performance against Berto has silenced a lot of the critics, but it is still in the back of their mind. As much as Floyd is not a knockout puncher, he has more power than the majority of people give him credit for. If he wanted to, he could have stopped the majority of his opposition by just pressing on the gas, but he has elected to take the safe route and take the easy UD, much the way the heavy-handed Roy Jones, JR., used to do in his light heavyweight title defenses.
The fight with Ortiz makes sense for Mayweather, because it’s preparation work. When George Foreman was gearing for a Mike Tyson fight, he found aggressive shorter guys to fight so he would have the right range in mind when he stepped into the ring with him. Floyd is looking across the ring at an aggressive southpaw with power, much like Manny Pacquiao. Ortiz has some limitations. He is not elusive and his timing is not there like Pacquiao’s is. If Pacquiao is an A, then Ortiz is a C+, but he still has room to grow. Mayweather knows that timing is everything. Ortiz is on the map with his win over Berto and he has enough defensive limitations to make the fight a breeze under ideal circumstances for Floyd, but the wildcard is the time off and the mindset of Ortiz.
Ortiz has the tools to win and if Floyd is rusty, there’s a chance. The stars must be aligned and a lot of different elements must come together for Ortiz to win, but there is a far better chance for an upset then there’s been in the majority of Floyd’s recent fights. This is a compelling fight and will hopefully work as half of an official tournament to crown the true pound for pound king.