What to do when Victor isn’t the victor

While junior welterweight Victor Ortiz has the looks and the style of a champion, does he have the heart? As his fight against Marcos Maidana showed, he's definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Ten days ago, Golden Boy Promotions sent their can’t-miss prospect, junior welterweight Victor Ortiz, into a Los Angeles ring to face Marcos Maidana. Although Maidana is a skilled fighter that gave Andreas Kotelnik all he could handle recently, his tendency to brawl made him the perfect candidate for the first main-event level fight featuring Ortiz. He would get some tough rounds from Maidana for sure, but Ortiz’ boxing skill would tell in the end. HBO cameras were there, complete with Ortiz’ riveting story about overcoming abandonment by both parents and lavish network hype prior to fight time. This would be the fight to showcase the Kansan’s step up to the big time, to possibly make Ortiz the name that carries the PPV torch for Golden Boy into the future. Shane Mosley’s not get any younger, you know.

Just one problem. Ortiz didn’t win.

Not only did he not win, Ortiz somehow got knocked out by the rugged Argentinean after sending him to the deck three times. Worse then that, when faced with Maidana’s unrelenting pressure in the sixth round, Ortiz appeared to quit, shaking his head and walking away from referee Raul Caiz, who, for some reason, didn’t stop the fight then. As Ortiz was cut from a punch, Caiz had the ringside doctor look at the cut, and upon his recommending the fight be stopped, nary a word of protest was heard from Ortiz. While this had to have Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins already disappointed, the postfight interview with Max Kellerman had to make both ex-champions wince.

One of Ortiz’ great charms is his candor, but in speaking to Kellerman, he said things that no one wants to hear from their upcoming fistic stars. While Ortiz started with the usual “it wasn’t my night” and “I just quit while I was ahead”, he then added the curious “I want to be able to speak well when I’m older”. As much as boxing fans berate fighters who sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher due to hanging on too long (Evander Holyfield, anyone?), that statement sounds like a guy who isn’t willing to get hit. Ortiz then shocked everyone by saying, “We’ll see what happens from here on out. I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to get beat up like this. I have a lot of thinking to do.”

Does that sound like the next Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler or Tommy Hearns? It sounds like someone who is destined for a college classroom, not boxing superstardom.

And here Golden Boy’s situation becomes very tricky. As with Alfredo Angulo a few weeks back, young fighters often hit a bump in the road. The greatest fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao, took a couple of humbling losses (one a knockout) earlier in his career before hitting superstardom. In most cases, fighters will show a desire to learn from the mistakes, get better, and hunger to get a crack at the next opponent. This is not the realm of journeymen, who often will quit in fights knowing they’ll have to get in the ring several more times that year to make a living. For rising stars like Ortiz, the hunger should be constant. When it’s not, then the huge investment Golden Boy has made in the young man’s career has everyone on high alert.

So going forward, does Golden Boy cut bait with a guy who may not have the desire to become world champion? They can’t run him out there again when there’s a chance he could take a few punches and lose the will to tough it out. Boxing is a rough business, and outings like Miguel Cotto’s nip-and-tuck battle with Joshua Clottey recently are more the usual way a fighter has to win fights at the top level. Without that willingness to sacrifice, fighters who take the easy way out become remembered infamously by the boxing public. De La Hoya knows this, so he’s got to gauge Ortiz and his desire to continue his career. There’s too much six-figure money being doled out to be unsure of anything when fighters walk out to the ring on fight night.

So while Ortiz has a big decision to make, so does Golden Boy.