posted by Large

No A-listers in the ring this weekend, but we do have two guys who are well on their way to the top of the heap, JuanMa Lopez in A.C. on an Arum in-house pay-per-view and Victor Ortiz in L.A. headlining B.A.D. on HBO (no Rocky Juarez/Chris John rematch on the BAD card unfortunately due to John being ill – poor Rocky, man, the guy is cursed). Also, we got King Arthur on Showtime on tape delay in his middleweight tune-up from Germany, a fight that some people are saying (including one of our very-plugged-in No Mas people who I will not out but I think you dedicated Masians know who I’m talking about) may be Showtime’s precursor to an Abraham/Froch donnybrook at 68.

Just to let you dudes know up top, I’m covering Ortiz/Maidana for HBO tomorrow night, so look for my post-fight recap over there. I’m going to try and put together a little video of the goings-on to run here at the Mas. Also, I did a profile of Ortiz for HBO this past week, so check that out if you are so inclined – Victor Ortiz’s Date with Destiny.

For those who might be thinking that Ortiz has himself a walkover tomorrow, check out the video below of his opponent, Marcos Maidana (in yellow and green), fighting Andriy Kotlenik in February for the WBA belt at 140. Maidana ended up losing a hotly disputed decision by a single point on a single scorecard. This he managed against a Ukrainian fighter while fighting in the adopted home country of seemingly all Ukrainian fighters – Germany (and I ask you, why isn’t the adopted home country of Ukrainian fighters… Ukraine?). In other words, you don’t have to be Columbo to smell something fishy in that decision. And you don’t have to be Whitey Bimstein to see that this Maidana motherfucker can fight a little bit.

When I interviewed Ortiz this past week, I was, like everyone who interviews the kid, taken by his youthfulness and contagious, unwitting charm. At one point, when I was asking him a question about the contrast between his calm, easygoing demeanor outside the ring and his vicious one outside it, he suddenly let out a big growl, like the growl of a cartoon lion in a cartoon jungle. I looked at my phone like, “wtf?” and then heard him say, “you hear that? I growled at you,” and laugh like that was the funniest fucking thing that ever happened.

I think Ortiz will win this fight, but I have a feeling it could be an… oh, let’s say an Andre Berto/David Estrada moment in his career. A moment where he get his first trip to the wall, in other words. I don’t know – maybe I’m overestimating Maidana’s ability. But he looks like he can really handle himself in the ring, like he gives as good as he gets and likes to be on the offensive at all times, a style that could give Ortiz some pause, given how accustomed he’s gotten to being the hunter and not the hunted. Plus, given the general mettle of Argentinian fighters, I’d definitely be surprised to see Maidana lay down before getting a few good licks in.

Ortiz’s style is tight and compact, but like most youngsters used to beating on their opponents like flesh-colored heavy bags, he still leaves himself open for a variety of counters when he punches. He found that out when Dairo Esalas dropped him in their fight on the De La Hoya/Forbes undercard last spring (did that whole Oscar/Forbes thing actually happen, btw? I was there and I’m still not quite sure).

The memory of that moment is certainly still etched in Ortiz’s mind. When I asked him what the biggest challenge he’d faced in his boxing career was, he thought for a second and then talked about getting up off the canvas in the Esalas fight. “I was like, okay, this is boxing,” he said, “and anyone can get caught, anyone can get dropped. So I got up and I looked at this guy and I said, “you’re mine… I was trying to play with you and so you caught me, but now you’re mine.’”

Which is exactly, predictably, how it played out. Esalas, I recall, earned himself more hurt with that little insurgency than he likely would have suffered without it. But the lesson he taught Ortiz – anyone can get dropped, even handsome, young fighting machines playing pin-the-fist-on-the-thirty-something-tomato-can… I get the feeling Ortiz is still kind of shocked in retrospect about learning that lesson.

That’s in keeping with my image of him on the whole. He comes off as humble, that’s his M.O. It’s an earnest self-presentation, I think. But I also think it’s a hustle. Deep in there, my sense is that Victor Ortiz is cocky as all fucknuts. In a good way, in the way you want every fighter to be in his heart. I worry, though, about that “King Kong ain’t got nothing on me” thing at his core combined with his position in the Golden Boy hierarchy, all the hype surrounding him, the Golden Boy’s Golden Boy business. Because as many times as he can insist to me that Marcos Maidana is the only fighter in his crosshairs, man, a kid like that, with the future they have mapped out ahead of him now… he GOT to be thinking big, got to be looking forward to the Bentleys and the bling and the “hey Beyoncé girl how you been?”

I don’t want to sell the kid short, though, because I have very much liked what I’ve seen of him in the ring so far. How could you NOT like it, right? But I suspect tomorrow night we’re going to get our first look at what he’s really made of, flash knockdown from Dairo Esalas aside. And I’m very interested to get a gander at the smiling Golden Boy Jr. when he bellies up to the gut-check bar, even if it’s only for a round or two.

What’s more, I’m hopeful that Amir Khan braves his trip up to 140 and gets a win over Kotelnik in their fight, now postponed to July 18th (thanks Kurt), setting up a potential Ortiz/Khan battle of the A-minus-list and rising (if our man, Dmitriy Salita doesn’t nab the Khan or Kotelnik spot, a fact that Kurt also set me straight on). Oh, how I’d love it if they did that fight at the Staples Center. But as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself…

(P.S. The only thing I have to say about Bob Arum’s A.C. card is this… why is Vanes Martirosyan vs. Andrey Tsurkan, like, the fifth undercard fight? That seems like a good fight to me. I’m more interested in that than I am Yuri Foreman and Cornelius Bundrage. Other than that… fuck it. I’m not going to be watching anyway cause I’m in L.A. I’ll download JuanMa dishing out his ritual beating to that Canadian dude on Sunday, or maybe just watch it on YouTube. In conclusion, we’ll talk about the May/Marquez re-sked next week. Large out.)