I wanted to first acknowledge that my predictions have been awful since I began this dang blog. Maidana took the decision over Morales; Guerrera decisively won against Katsidis; Khan's evening ended after 6 rounds; and Victor Ortiz, new Welterweight champion, beat up Andre Berto in a big upset. Hopefully my predictions get better so you readers can trust my word a little more.
But never mind that; let's talk about Berto-Ortiz. What a fight. Ortiz shows up "possessed," as Jim Lampley and Larry merchant both mention. Berto gets stunned in the first round by Ortiz's power and hits the canvas twice. Still wobbly in the second round, he sends Ortiz off balance and scores a knockdown (I
did predict that both would get knocked down!). Ortiz makes his way back ahead in the next few rounds, landing serious bombs as he pins Berto against the ropes. Round 6 sees a somewhat recomposed Andre Berto scoring significantly against Ortiz, dropping him within the last minute of the round. Ortiz gets up, and, facing a storm of power shots as Berto tries to end the fight, lands a hook that in turn reacquaints Berto with the canvas. He lost that round, but in that turn of events he won the fight. For the rest of the fight Berto tries tying up with Ortiz to avoid taking anymore big shots, but as a result loses many of those later rounds. Ortiz takes the unanimous decision win.
Ortiz's win was all the more impressive being that he was up against both Andre Berto and all the naysayers. His move up to welterweight seemed like a complete whim, and very few understood why he would do that. But he was sure that the move was right for him, and he succeeded--he out-worked and out-matched his opponent, left it all in the ring, and proved us wrong. That never should have happened.
Boxing fans have every reason to be stoked about this. We now have some serious commotion in the welterweight division. Victor Ortiz is all of a sudden one of the belt-holders in the division (let alone a member of the division), and Berto is still a dangerous contender in the division (and he's been claiming that the guy who fought Ortiz last night was not him). There will probably be a rematch, meaning these two alone already guarantee more drama to come. And don't forget about the other welterweights, a couple of whom also took note of last night's showing. None-Other-Than Floyd Mayweather was in the crowd watching that fight, laughing off the boos he received when he showed up on the big screen. And after the fight Ortiz received a congratulatory phone call from None-Other-Than Manny Pacquiao.
Might we have the next Leonard-Hearns-Hagler-Duran 4-way rivalry? Maybe I'm just ambitious....
I am still in shock about this upset. I can't wait for more welterweight action.
-JD
