Golden Boy announced on
Tuesday afternoon that Victor Ortiz would face WBC junior middleweight titlist
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 15th on their pay-per-view card
from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Immediately, some folks
wondered why Ortiz would go through with his June 23rd bout on
Showtime versus Josesito Lopez while others believed it was “disrespectful” to
Lopez to make this announcement when they did. I'm trying to figure out what
the big deal is. The bottom line is that if Ortiz waited around to face “Canelo,”
it will have been about a full calendar year since he last faced live bullets.
His 2012 has been defined by the two pull-outs of Andre Berto which have unfortunately
kept him sidelined. As for any slight to Lopez, well, he get his chance to
upset the apple cart in less than two weeks at the Staples Center.
Fighters should fight. The
reality is that at the world-class level, they simply don't stay active enough
and it has hindered their development as fighters. It's my personal belief that
a lot of these supposed “big” fights today fail to meet expectations because
they involve too many fighters who battle ring rust as they get into the ring
to face each other.
To put this into
perspective, in talking to Kathy Duva, she recalled that Main Events (which
promoted that historic first bout between Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns) had a
deal in place for that bout to take place early on in 1981 with a scheduled
date of September 16th. Both Leonard and Hearns had not just one but two tune-up bouts in the lead-up to
that fight.
Yeah, it was a different
time and place, one where fighters actually fought.
