ORTIZ HITS A ROADBLOCK NAMED MAIDANA (WITH PHOTOS)
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Los Angeles, CA:- Tonight at the Staples Center in this city, in a slugfest reminiscent of the classic Vazquez-Rafa Marquez battles to the finish, Victor Ortiz hit a roadblock named Marcos Rene Maidana and suffered his second loss in his young and budding career.
Before the fight started, Maidana, the slugger from Argentina who himself has only lost once when he suffered a split decision lost in February to Andriy Koltenik in Germany.
Tonight however in front of a decent-sized hometown crowd that came to see Ortiz, Maidana seemed bent in winning the fight regardless of the situation. One can see that in his body language.
Many amongst those in the crowd that included famous personalities like Oscar de la Hoya, Shane Mosley and Mario Lopez however were hoping that Maidana would be dealt a defeat by the kid from Oxnard they call ?Vicious?.
This was true particularly in the first part of round one when in a furious exchange of very hard shots, Ortiz dropped Maidana for a count of 8 with a hard right hook.
However as soon as the fight continued, Ortiz made a mistake of rushing to finish off Maidana thinking that he was hurt by the knock-down.
AS they met in the middle of the ring Maidana threw a perfect right hook that landed flush on the chin of Ortiz and Ortiz went down on the seat of his pants.
When round two started, Ortiz and Maidana continued to throw wild punches and many of which landed at will. Towards the end of round 2 Ortiz got the better of the wild exchanges and dropped Maidana twice before the round ended.
Round three and four were just like the first two rounds sans the knock-downs.
In round 5, Maidana landed a tremendous left that opened a cut below the right eyebrow of Ortiz as the two gladiators continued their hard exchanges. Maidana at this juncture seem to be getting the upper hand.
Early in round 6, Maidana?s hard counter right shots produced a mouse under the left eye of Ortiz. The multiple shots he started to land on Ortiz also started to show their effects and Ortiz visibly weakened and had a hard time blocking the shots as he did in the early goings of the fight.
Towards the end of the round Maidana again landed a vicious right that drop Ortiz on his knees.
The referee, Raul Caiz Sr., stopped the fight and called the doctor to check on Ortiz. Seconds later, upon the advice of the ringside doctor, the fight was stopped awarding Maidana a 6th round TKO victory on the strength of the cut on Ortiz that prevented Ortiz from continuing.
Had the cut been a result of an accidental head butt and not a punch, the results would have been different as Ortiz was leading on the scorecards.
After the fight was stopped, it was interesting how the Golden Boy people reacted. Shane Mosley was seen consoling the visibly disappointed Ortiz. Oscar de la Hoya and Richard Schaefer were up on the ring as well doing the same thing and giving words of comfort to the young Ortiz. What a class act!
So what is now next for Ortiz?
Being young and very talented, if would be no surprise if Ortiz will come back with a vengeance and finally win a title.
Should he decide to go that route, certainly he has the whole Golden Boy people to help him achieve his goals. In the meantime, it is time to rest, recuperate and ponder the future.
After all, the loss to Maidana was only a roadblock. For sure Ortiz in the next weeks or months will find the ways to overcome such roadblocks much like he did when he was abandoned by his parents as a young child.
Top photo: Marcos Maidana (L) of Argentina tags Victor Ortiz of Oxnard, CA with a right in this bit of action during their fight Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
More Photos:
Photos by Dr. Ed de la Vega.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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