"I'm young and I don't deserve to be beat up like this, I have some thinking to do." - Victor Ortiz moments after his TKO loss to Marcos Maidana
How the fortunes have certainly changed for Victor Ortiz since that dismal night in June almost two years ago when he was defeated at the hands of the hellaciously powerful Marcos Maidana. It was a great fight, both fighters eating the canvas in the first round, Ortiz rocking Maidana only to get rocked back in return; a truly sensational night that would define the career of Ortiz. Unfortunately, the moment wouldn't be of Ortiz's beating of Maidana in the early going, nor would it be about his heart or grit. Instead, it would be of his lack thereof. Yes, Ortiz is now the Welterweight champion of the world after shellacking Andre Berto for 12 rounds almost two weeks ago, and Maidana is coming off a loss to Amir Khan and a questionable win at best against the very faded Erik Morales, but there is no better time or reason for these two to fight each other again.
The mere mention of Maidana to Ortiz sends the young champion in a rage, going as far as to say that Maidana isn't worth the oxygen he uses to dispense his name. If one were to ask Ortiz if he would ever fight Maidana again, Ortiz will simply answer "no." Truth be told, as long as Maidana and Ortiz are still winning fights and are still in the public's eye, then they really do have no choice but to eventually fight each other once again to prove who is the better of the two. Ortiz believes that he is a bigger fighter than Maidana, and he isn't wrong in thinking that, but he's too young and too dangerous for the Pacquiao's and Mayweather's to be looking his way.
Ortiz had told Golden Boy Promotions that he was due for a big shot and he wanted Berto, so he got it and made the best of it by winning a world title. While winning fulfilled the promise of talent many saw in him, it hasn't absolved him from the night where he said he didn't deserve to take a beating. Being that a Maidana rematch is an in-house fight and could be the most financially lucrative fight Ortiz can make right now, it's almost shocking that he is so willing to let the fight slip out of reach while his next likely opponent is a mandatory called Selcuk Aydin.
Maidana may be finding himself in a similar situation as Ortiz, being that he will soon outgrow the 140-pound weight class and find himself seven pounds north and he will bring with him the night he made the champion quit. Ortiz cannot be serious in trying to say that there is unfinished business with Berto, who he dominated quite frankly after the sixth round onwards, when he refuses to give Maidana a shot.
The great Emmanuel Steward told Miguel Cotto that unless he avenges his losses to Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, those two losses will overshadow a Hall of Fame career that produced fantastic fights and titles in three weight classes along the way. Cotto has shown no desire to rematch Margarito and still shows no desire, but Top Rank is forcing it upon him to erase that loss whether he likes it or not and that could end up being a great fight. Ortiz clearly doesn't believe he's in the same boat, but it's very clear that he is.
Personally, I don't see what the issue is. If it was a bad night, as Ortiz has suggested, then it should be that much easier to rectify the loss and add the name of one of the sports better fighters to his resume. By making the fight, he'll become a fighter for the fans who will fight the best and fight like a champion, only making him more popular in victory or defeat. Ortiz doesn't seem to want that though, already feeling the Hollywood aura around him making him oblivious to the fact that unless proven otherwise, there is one person out there that can bring out the quit in him. Let's just hope that he'll prove us all wrong one day.
(Danny Howard can be reached at dhoward@fighthype.com, Twitter @DBHoward126, and Facebook.)