Was Floyd Mayweather’s knockout victory over Victor Ortiz a sucker punch or fair play?
From the weigh-in to the fighter entrances in the ring, Las Vegas was simply electric in anticipation of what was hopefully to be one of the best fights in 2011.
Going into the fight, “Vicious” Victor Ortiz promised that he would rough up Floyd and make him walk a very rough and bloody path as he stated on HBO’s 24/7 Mayweather/Ortiz show, while Mayweather promised that he would stand in front of Victor and fight him and I have to say that I did not believe Floyd, but boy was I wrong.
Leading up to the fight, the two fighters got into a little jaw-jacking at the weigh-in. The two fighters pushed and shoved each other causing the crowd at the MGM Grand to explode with excitement and anticipation for the showdown as comedians Kevin Hart and Paul Rodriguez cracked jokes throughout the entire weigh-in process.
Both Mayweather and Ortiz looked more than ready for the fight as both of them entered the ring in excellent shape. The first round of this fight started out as expected; Mayweather feeling out the young lion Ortiz to test his timing. The crowd roared during the fight every time Ortiz laid a glove on Mayweather as surprisingly the crowd he an Ortiz feel to it.
I feel that Ortiz won the first round based on his pressure alone as Mayweather did not do too much and was simply feeling out Ortiz and letting Ortiz get off to test his timing.
In the second round Floyd began to settle down and pick off a lot of Ortiz’s shots. It was the start of the pot shot party by counterpunching Ortiz with crisp clean shots as he came inside in hopes of inflicting some hurt on Mayweather and landing the lottery shot. Surprisingly in this fight, Ortiz was actually backing up and fighting while Mayweather became the aggressor. Mayweather took over the fight in round two and won the round with unbelievable speed and accuracy.
The third round was more of the same as Mayweather continued to hit Ortiz with clean shot after clean shot which started to frustrate the young lion. Though Ortiz was a little bit in over his head, he did not give up as he had some moments where he wowed the MGM Grand crowd with some shots that did land on Mayweather. Taunting by Mayweather also began to frustrate Ortiz as Mayweather began to feel real comfortable in the ring at this point in the fight. Mayweather won round three with more speed and deadly accurate punches.
The Head Butt and the Follow Up
Now for the controversy; at the beginning of round number four as the two fighters were getting ready to come out of their corners you could see a look of frustration and desperation in Ortiz’s eyes as it looked as if he knew that he was not going to be able to pull off the upset against Mayweather. Round four was more of the same beautiful boxing by Mayweather and surprisingly he was walking down Ortiz.
During the middle of round four Ortiz backed Mayweather into the ropes, but could not land anything on Floyd. Out of frustration, Ortiz intentionally head-butted Mayweather while the two fighters were still against the ropes. Referee Joe Cortez broke up the two fighters and took Ortiz by the arm and signaled to the judges to take away a point from Ortiz for the intentional head-butt.
Regretful for what he had done, Ortiz went into Mayweather’s corner and apologized to him for the head-butt and punch by kissing Mayweather on the cheek. Mayweather seemed to have accepted Ortiz’s apology.
The two fighters were still in their opposing corners after Ortiz had apologized to Mayweather. Joe Cortez had his back turned as it looked like he was still talking to the judges. As Cortez was still occupied for reasons I cannot figure out, Ortiz and Mayweather met in the middle of the ring and touched gloves. Then Ortiz dropped his guard for a split second and Mayweather caught Ortiz with a devastating left hook that he did not expect to get hit with.
When Ortiz got hit with the left hook, he looked over at Referee Cortez to help out with the matter and Mayweather followed up the left hook with a deadly straight right hand that sent Ortiz whaling to the canvas.
Referee Cortez ruled Ortiz falling to the canvas a knockdown and started the ten count on Ortiz. Because the punches thrown by Mayweather were unexpected, Ortiz was unable to beat the 10 count.
The entire MGM Grand Garden Arena erupted, some people disgusted with Mayweather and others who felt like Ortiz overlooked the golden rule of boxing which is protect yourself at all times.
So, Fair or Foul?
I have seen Ortiz get hit with harder punches than the ones that Mayweather knocked him out with last Saturday night. Fighters like Marcos Maidana and Andre Berto seriously rocked Ortiz but he was able to get up off of the canvas and fight which brings me to the conclusion that in this fight with Mayweather, either Ortiz was indeed sucker punched or when Ortiz hit the canvas, he wanted out of the fight because he knew at that point in the fight that he had no shot at beating the great Floyd Mayweather.
Was Mayweather’s left hook shot on Ortiz a sucker punch? I will have to say yes, but it was also fair given what Ortiz did to Mayweather against the ropes. I know that Ortiz overlooked the golden rule protect yourself at all times, but I just wish that Mayweather would have kept his composure when he got head-butted and did not stoop to that level.
Mayweather is clamoring for the respect he deserves, but he continues to do things that turn the boxing world off. Ortiz is a young and inexperienced fighter when it comes to performing on the big stage so Mayweather should have taken the head-butt with class and continued the cerebral assault that he was inflicting on Ortiz.
After all of the controversy, though, I must say that after a sixteen month layoff, “Money” Mayweather, not Pacquiao, is the man to beat in the sport of boxing.
