By Michael Marley, Examiner.com
CHICAGO—Golden Boy’s newest Golden Boy Vicious Victor Ortiz appeared headed for the boxing scrap heap when he was knocked out by a not so Mild Bull of the Pampas named Marcos Maidana.
Ortiz, the kid from Oxnard by way of a small town (Garden City) in Kansas, got hammered by Maidana, including get knocked down twice, and compounded his situation in a postfight interview in which he indicated that his fighting spirit was crushed by a foe who didn’t reads his glowing press clippings and Internet hype.
The official result was TKO 6 by Maidana in the June 27 Los Angeles bout which was for the WBA title.
Fight fans can accept a courageous loser but they rarely cotton to a quitter and unfortunately southpaw Ortiz gave off that I don’t really care air.
Since that awful night, in an HBO televised bout designed as an Ortiz showcase, Ortiz has repeatedly said he doesn’t really recall much after being stunned by the initial knockdown.
The closing stages of that bout seemed to be lost in a knockout induced mental fog, Ortiz said.
His promoters wanted to dust him off and bring him back to some semblance of the can’t miss world champion tag they had pinned on him.
And they found the perfect, worse for wear at age 33 journeyman for the 22 year old Ortiz to clobber, Antonio Diaz of Coachella, Ca. (Both weighed 144 pounds).
Starting cautiously but then picking up the pace when he saw the slow motion reaction of the now 45-6-1 Diaz, Ortiz bounced back into the win column Saturday night at the University of Illinois, Chicago, campus.
Ortiz pounded on Diaz until one second of round seven when Diaz’s corner threw in the towel. Diaz did have blood flowing as a result of a cut around his left eye and he never really won any of the first six rounds.
So, after the TKO loss Ortiz rebounded with a TKO 7 victory.
"I felt I pretty much executed the game plan in there," Ortiz said. "I wasn't comfortable at first but then I started using my jab when he started coming inside on me."
Diaz would do well to seriously consider retirement with 52 pro bouts on his record.
Ortiz raised his record to 25-3-1 and notched a third round knockdown over the plodding Diaz.
Given the brutality of the Maidana defeat, I bet the Goldens will remain protective of Ortiz at least for another bout or two as he rebuilds his mental confidence.
There’s absoulutely no need to rush a 22 year old who could blossom into a real star (if his chin and ring resolve remain firm) who was rushed once before.
Beating Diaz was a baby step for Ortiz but an important one as Ortiz attempts to get back to “can’t miss” from “he was nothing much, anyway.”
They’re doing to young Ortiz what people do to battered furniture.
It’s called refurbishing.
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
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