Vicious cycle of events in Mayweather fight

LAS VEGAS – There could not have been a more bizarre ending to the Victor Ortiz-Floyd Mayweather fight for the former’s WBC welterweight title before 14,678 fans at the MGM Center Grand Arena and a global audience of millions.

With approximately less than a minute left in the fourth round, a swarming Ortiz had pinned the slippery and cool Mayweather in the latter’s corner. Oritz however ruined the attack by jumping dead first (in short it wasn’t just an ordinary head butt) into Mayweather’s chin bloodying the latter’s outer lower lip and the back side of his lower left lip. Veteran referee Joe Cortes then stepped in and brought the two fighters to the center of the ring at the same time motioning a point deduction against Ortiz to each of the three judges at ringside.

Moments earlier, Ortiz embraced and kissed Mayweather on the chek, seemingly to apologize for his transgression. Seconds later, the two protagonists wandered a few feet from Ortiz’s corner with Cortez, for some unexplainable reason, looking elsewhere, it seems to his right in the direction of one of the judges. It’s at this point that events become convoluted thus precipitating discussions among opposing fans seated around me, Solar’s Peter Chanliong, William Tieng and wife Aida and Justin and Emily Forsyth, colleagues of Tieng and Chanliong.

It appears that Ortiz who is 10 years younger than the 34-year old Mayweather wanted to apologize again to Mayweather (who in effect was Ortiz’s “boss” that night since Mayweather co-promoted the 84-round card with Oscar de la Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions).

Ortiz extended his gloves to shake hands with Mayweather who interpreted the gesture as the traditional “touch gloves”, thus signalling the resumption of action without, it seems, explicit actions and words from Cortez that he ordered the resumption of the fight. Since Mayweather interpreted the Ortiz gesture as the latter’s readiness to resume fighting and in keeping with principle that “a fighter has to protect himself at all times” (and lest he be victimized by a similar treacherous act like the earlier head butt), Mayweather instinctively hit Ortiz with a left.

A surprised Ortiz, instead of defending himself, turned to glance at Cortez as if to ask for confirmation of the fight’s resumption. That single moment of indecision, some even cruelly say, naivete, proved to be his undoing: he was counted out at 2:59 of the fourth round after being decked by a right straight to the kisser.

Discussions at ringside concluded that Mayweather’s sucker punch was triggered by the intentional headbutt committed by Ortiz. This frame of mind was reflected in the post-fight comment of Dan Rafael of ESPN Boxing who said Ortiz got what he deserved because of the head butt. For his part, Cortez told Tim Dahlberg of AP that “time was in, the fighters needed to keep their guard up. Mayweather did nothing illegal”. Others may disagree with Cortez and even admit that Mayweather was reacting to time-honored boxing convention. But there are enough people who have been in boxing long enough to find fault with Cortez’s actions Saturday night.

In response to my texted question if Cortez bungled the job, trainer of the year awardee, Freddie Roach, simply said, “Yes, he did.”

After three round, I had Mayweather winning the second and third rounds with the uneventful first round, even. Two judges gave Mayweather three rounds while a third gave two rounds to the former and one to the titleholder.

Veteran ring gladiator Erik Morales TKO’s previously unbeaten fellow Mexican Pablo Cesar Cano to capture the vacant WBC super lightweight title and improve his record to 52-7 (36 KOs). Morales methodically cut down the game Cano who was only three years old when Morales turned pro at 16.

In the main supporting bout, featuring two other Mexicans, WBC superwelterweight champion Canelo Alvarez successfully defended his title by TKO over Alfonso Gomez.

Before flying into Las Vegas, friends from way back at De La Salle, Jojo de la Fuente (team captain of the La Salle junior basketball squad in the NCAA and UP Maroons in the UAAP) and Manolo Relova (team captain of the La Salle college swimming team in the NCAA), brought me to the Lucky Chances Casino and Fine Dining at Colma city in south San Francisco not to gamble but to sample the reasonably-priced Filipino cuisine. Lucky Chances is owned by Rene Medina, a self-made man from Arayat, Pampanga.

Medina employs former world champion Luisito Espinosa as carpet cleaner to form part of Espinosa’s regimen in preparation for a possible comeback at 44-year-old. The taxing chore of cleaning carpets manually daily complements Espinosa’s workouts in a gym built by Medina for the ex-champ in the valet parking area of the huge and popular enterprise. Espinosa, who has had more than his share of marital and financial woes, looks trim but still has to secure his boxing license.