If you’ve been watching any of the Mayweather-Ortiz 24/7 episodes, or seen any of the other previews and buildup towards the September 17th clash between Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz, then you’ve heard each man make a number of “out there” claims. That’s nothing new to the world of boxing promotion, where fighters, promoters and everyone else is outlandish and braggadocios to say the least. However, one specific claim by Ortiz should be addressed, and that’s the claim he made regarding handing Mayweather his first loss. Ortiz says he first said that when he was 9 years old.
Now, great athletes in all sports often envision themselves as future champions and future legends when they are children. Even the average child who plays sports will do the same thing. However, the time line that Ortiz provides for this dubious claim just doesn’t match up.
Victor Ortiz was born on January 31, 1987. That means that he turned 9 on January 31, 1996, and remained that age until the following year, January 30, 1997.
Floyd Mayweather was a 1996 US Olympian, and he earned a bronze medal at those games. He didn’t turn professional until October 11, 1996. Following that, he fought two more times before Ortiz would have turned 10 years of age. He fought on November 30, 1996, and January 18, 1997, amassing a whopping 3-0 (2 KOs) record at that point in time.
Mayweather certainly had some hype behind him as a medal-winning USA boxer, however, he wasn’t on anybody’s radar at that time besides the most devoted of boxing followers, and certainly not the 9-year-old Victor Ortiz. The 1996 USA Olympic boxing squad would eventually contain a number of world-class professionals, and included six individual medalists. Five of those six, including Mayweather, won bronze, while the gold medal winning super-prospect was David Reid.
Mayweather was as far away as he could be from a 41-0, five-division boxing champion. Great things were to come, but they weren’t there yet. Even as a bronze medalist from the Olympics and the USA boxing team, he wasn’t the “name” fighter of the bunch, overshadowed by the likes of Reid, while the precocious Fernando Vargas also began making waves immediately as a professional.
So, let’s be honest, Ortiz has his years confused, at best, or his claim is an outright lie. Once again, it’s nothing unusual in the world of fight hype and boxing promotion, however, it is unusual that Ortiz continues going back to that claim time and time again. It’s also part of the “new” Victor Ortiz, the one that seemed completely oblivious to his fight with Marcos Maidana and insists that the Argentine is ducking him to this day, and that he himself has been a killer all along.
It’s just interesting that he would choose a fabrication, one that he repeats over and over again, that could be so easily debunked.
