Juan Manuel Lopez, Daniel Jacobs and Arthur Abraham all victorious in weekend boxing action
In a busy weekend of boxing action, one of the top prospects in the sport, junior welterweight sensation Victor Ortiz got TKO’d by the hard hitting and hard charging Marcos Maidana of Argentina.
The fight was stopped by the ringside doctor under a minute into the 6th round of a seesaw battle that saw both men badly hurt at various points in the fight. Maidana and Ortiz came out in the first round swinging for the fences and entirely abandoning any effort to use the jab.
Ortiz knocked Maidana down with a right hook while he was up against the ropes. Maidana came back up and caught Ortiz flush with a straight right that sent Ortiz down. Both men managed to survive the round, in what could be a sure bet for Round of the Year honors.
In the second round Ortiz put his punches together and made Maidana miss. The results were that Maidana got sent to the canvas two more times, and it looked like the evening could have been another early one for Vicious Victor. However, Maidana fought on and despite losing rounds was punishing Ortiz with some heavy blows.
The fight turned in the 5th round when Maidana opened up a cut over the right eye of Ortiz. He then started to find a home for a huge overhand right and seemingly could not miss with the shot. He repeatedly threw the punch and soon Ortiz’s left eye was swollen nearly shut.
In the 6th round Maidana came out launching the same overhand right that Ortiz couldn’t avoid, and pummeled him to the canvas. Ortiz got up from the knockdown but turned his back, the ringside doctor then took a look at the fighter and stopped the fight due to the cut. However it was easy to see that Ortiz was not interested in continuing.
This was made clear in the post fight interview as well, when Ortiz expressed no interest in taking a beating like that and was surprisingly candid in his choice to not continue fighting. In fact, Ortiz almost seemed ready to call it quits from the entire sport, which would be shocking considering his status but probably had more to due with the emotions of the moment.
Ortiz said he had a lot of thinking to do and that he was still young, but he didn’t need to be getting hurt as he was in that fight. Also, Ortiz seemed extremely happy after the fight, almost as if by losing he had shed all of the pressure that has been piled atop of his shoulders with his top prospect status.
It will be interesting to see how Ortiz rebounds from this and he if continues to fight at the top level of the sport. He falls to 24 (19)–2–1, while Maidana improves to 26 (25) – 1 and is now the WBA Junior Welterweight champion.
In other weekend boxing action…
Super middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs dominated George Walton, eventually earning the stoppage win in the 8 th round. Jacobs is now 17-0 with 15 knockouts and may be looking for a bigger name opponent for his fight.
Middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham made yet another defense of his title, turning on the pressure in the middle rounds of the fight and stopping challenger Mahir Oral in the 10th round. Abraham now is 30-0 with 24 knockout victories.
Juan Manuel Lopez continued to assert himself as a premier super bantamweight, as he defended his title successfully against Olivier Lontchi, stopping him in the 9th round of their bout. Lopez is now 26-0 with 24 wins coming by knockout, while Lontchi falls to 18-1-2.
