ATG LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNIE: ROUND 1, FIGHT 6 - CARLOS ORTIZ UD15 JOE BROWN

It's pretty astonishing stuff this, but I think this is the first time in this series of tournaments that two boys who have met in real life have met in a tournie. So: does the timing make a difference? Or is the style advantage too much to be borne?

Carlos Ortiz is one of the greatest 135lb champions in history, 11-2 in lineal title fights, king in eight different calender years, ranked among the best lightweights in the world for an incredible eleven years. A champion at 140lbs, too, his career is a glittering monument to fistic excellence.

Ortiz arrived in earnest in 1958, dropping a questionable decision to the ranked Johnny Busso, a decision he justly reversed in an immediate rematch. Puerto Rican by birth, both of those combats were staged at Madison Square Garden, where he would become something of a favorite.

He was identified as a title threat later that same year in dominating Dave Charnley in London. Charnley was fancied the puncher but Ortiz attacked him directly and aggressively, illustrating a justified confidence in an iron chin and a stern punch. Neither rescued him at the year’s end when he stumbled to a majority decision loss against Kenny Lane. Lane was after the light-welterweight crown, so light-welterweight was where Ortiz headed, avenging himself against his rival in picking up that title. This kept him clear of the lightweight title picture until 1962 when he met with the reigning champion Joe Brown.

Ortiz boxed brilliantly that night in the Garden, producing as consummate a title winning performance as can be seen on film. He explored Brown’s limits over the first twelve minutes, losing, for me, those four rounds but establishing a pace that the champion could not comfortably maintain before using the fact to expose chinks in his armour. Brown was a wonderful, cagey, clever fighter but Ortiz basically beat him one-handed, tattooing him with jabs while holding in reserve the virtual threat of his right which forbade Brown his preferred approach, that of trying to bring his opponent onto his punches – too risky against Carlos. I thought Ortiz won every remaining round in the contest to end one of the greatest title reigns in history and begin another.

Ortiz staged four successful defences in that first run, outstanding among them his fifteen round decision over old foe Kenny Lane, another left-handed clinic, before he ran into an inspired Ismael Laguna on enemy territory in Panama. Laguna won a majority decision but the return was in Puerto Rico where Ortiz reclaimed his title. Ortiz staged another five successful defenses in this, his second spell in command of the world title, including another defense against Laguna, who he dominated in New York to take the rubber.

Carlos Teo Cruz unseated him by split decision in August, 1967; Ortiz would never again become the pre-eminent lightweight in the world, but he had by this time marked his name among the immortals.

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Joe Brown has been unfashionable for so long it has almost become fashionable to laud him. So let’s get the particulars out of the way and explain what he is doing in the #11 slot up front: he is 12-1 in lightweight title matches. He defeated no fewer than three #1 contenders. He was champion of the world in six calendar years. These raw statistics are impressive. Behind them, is an impressive fighter.

After losing the title to the mighty Carlos Ortiz in 1962, aged 36, Brown’s career became a disaster; he won just twenty of the forty-six fights he slogged through. His championship years, however, were sparkling.

I would guess that he hit his absolute prime while in the ring with the champion, in 1956, in a non-title fight, contested above lightweight. That champion was Bud Wallace, the definition, perhaps of a caretaker but a fine fighter; such was the ease with which Brown defeated him, Wallace burst into tears in the dressing room.

In their rematch for the title, a disaster so severe befell Brown that many other men – even great ones – would have folded. He broke his right wrist, in just the second round, but fought so brilliantly with his left that the two knockdowns he scored in the fourteenth when he reintroduced his right were enough to bring him the title on a split decision. In the title rematch, he staged a successful first defense, busting Wallace up so badly that he was pulled at the end of the tenth.

Brown was a quick, spritely mover who relied upon mobility for his defense, and it worked. A fast, sharp jab was often a pre-cursor to a torpedo right hand that was responsible for many of his fifty-two knockouts. Over the years it has come to be accepted that Brown was solid, consistent, steady but not extraordinary – I don’t think that is true at all, and I don’t think that the readily available footage describes that position. But even if it did, Brown had one of the most exceptional title reigns in the history of the division, king for more than five years, posting better than two championship wins per year. The number one contenders he defeated – David Charnley, Paulo Rosi, Kenny Lane – are not now household names, but they were the next best fighters in his division. He brooked no resistance from these pretenders. Orlando Zuleta, Joey Lopes, Johnny Busso, Cisco Andrade and Ralph Dupas were also ranked when he fought them. It is often said of great champions that they “cleared out the division.” It’s almost never true, but in Brown’s case, I’ll stand the point.

Until Ortiz came along and battered “Old Bones” out of his championship. I suspect few fighters have cherished the title more when in ownership.

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Who will win under the following rules?

15 round fight.
1960 referee.
8oz boxing gloves.
10 points must.

Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.

 

"Old age and Carlos Ortiz finally caught up with lightweight champion Joe Brown Saturday night as the young New Yorker wrested the world crown from the 35 year old veteran of 115 ring engagements. A crowd of more than 7,000 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and a national television audience looked on with astonishment as the 25 year old bull from the Bronx completely outclassed the Old Bones of fighting. Ortiz did just what he had promised before the fight. He stayed on top of Brown all the way, seldom letting the hard hitting champion get set to throw a lethal punch with either hand. Ortiz, scoring consistently with a popping left jab as his main weapon, slit open Brown's eye in the 1st round. It bled throughout the evening, and while it may not have hurt the old fellow, it didn't do him any good." -Associated Press

• Unofficial AP scorecard - 74-61 Ortiz