Victor Ortiz

I can see how Victor Ortiz’ promoter, Oscar Dela Hoya is also his number one believer. They’re both Mexican-Americans with talent and skill to complement their power, and Ortiz has raw power in both hands. Victor is called “Vicious” for a good reason: he has a crowd pleasing fighting style and is very aggressive, always looking to force the action in the ring; And Victor has that charm and rugged good looks that could pull that star status like a halo up above his head. In a way, they are much alike. Whether he has the elements and that broad smile to capture an even wider market, we all have to wait and see. Around two years ago when Oscar Dela Hoya cashed in on these factors and predicted him as the next golden boy of boxing things were looking good up ahead and the stars were indeed starting to align in his favor. Everything seemed to glow yonder the horizon for Ortiz’ up until he unexpectedly hit that Argentine bloc of force in the form of Marcos Maidana, who knocked him off the path to success.

But for the Mexican-American prizefighter, Victor “Vicious” Ortiz the prize of winning against Andre Berto last April 16, 2011 shoots beyond the rewards of gaining the WBC Welterweight title and settles at a higher plateau of that much sought regained respect. Every fighter is as good as his last fight, so they say, and Ortiz’ last one is a running contender to fight of the year for 2011. In fact, he was so good in that fight that he is now regarded as among the top Welterweights in the world, and that prior knockout loss he suffered against Maidana in 2009 has become a wound in the distant past which time healed nicely.

At the age of 24, the young and volatile Ortiz has switched from being a strong up-and-comer to being touted as the next big name in boxing, down to being an exposed fighter and now ranked by many boxing sites as being one of the top two Welterweights in the world. Still riding that natural high of capturing the WBC Welterweight belt, the question that looms over the new champion is, will he finally be able to overcome that instability and show to the world his championship win was not a mere stroke of good luck? Is he ripe enough to be plucked from the common and placed amongst the elite in the sport? For certainly, his next opponent, Floyd Mayweather Jr., at this point in his career doesn’t need a belt around his waist to be considered one.

Ortiz brings a lot of interest with him each time he fights not only due to his personal and professional background, but ‘cause he carries so much passion as a fighter. Almost like Oscar, he always comes forward with his arms up, looking boxy and basic. He comes in with that strong upper body figure and a decent jab, and being a lefty could pose some difficulty against Mayweather Jr. to some degree. With the conditioning he had against Andre Berto maybe he'd have enough energy to fuel the same long pressured attack De La Hoya applied against Floyd Jr. and there's a possibility that Ortiz could actually finish the job Oscar De La Hoya nearly accomplished back in 2007. If only De La Hoya had not stopped throwing those jabs at Floyd Jr. many agree how he really could have won that fight, and just maybe the energetic Ortiz could attempt to finish what he had started with youth on his side.