Brandon Lee González "Bam Bam" Ríos vs. "Vicious" Victor Manuel Ortíz

A grudge match that was long promised but never delivered.

For those who don't know...

They were friends in high school:

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...and later learned the craft under our very own @Flatlander aka Robert González of the Bad Boyz Boxing Club in Garden City, KS.

Then, they took different routes to world title contention - and both ironically ended up based in the same county in SoCal, just a fifteen minute drive apart. Somewhere along the way, for reasons that have become the stuff of he-said-he-said legend, a deep rift of enmity grew, and grew, and grew until the bad blood was common knowledge amongst fans and even mentioned on fight broadcasts. It came near happening a few times, most recently for a date that seemed all but finalized in August of 2018 before Victor's legal troubles (ranging from DUI to sexual assault) derailed plans and Brandon declared that he was moving on. Since that planned meeting, Ortíz has fought just once - returning from a 3½ year layoff to lose to Robert Guerrero via UD on the Pacquiao vs. Ugás undercard last month. Ríos, meanwhile, kept busier for a time, stopping Canelo's elder brother Ramón Álvarez in November of 2018 and then losing to Humberto Soto a few months later...but has been absent from the ring since and per multiple sources (Elie Seckbach and Francisco Salazar) has privately claimed to have retired for a second time, and for good.

If they had fought, when it was feasible, I guess for the sake of argument let's say when both were regularly active welterweights (2013-2018) - how would it have gone? Competitive? Bloodbath? Cathartic, or start of a trilogy-plus with the wounds never healed through shared experience?

Common opponents:
Manuel Solís "Manny" Pérez Jr. - drew with Ríos in 2008, was TKO7ed in the rematch the following year. TKO3ed by Ortíz in 2014.
Joel Ortega - TKO1ed by Ortíz in 2004. KO5ed by Ríos in 2005.
Raul Montes - TKO1ed by Ortíz in 2004. TKO3ed by Ríos a month later.

 

I think they were always cruising towards a falling out, tbh. One is a very 'real' and honest to a fault, doesn't give a damn about tact or your feelings person (remember the cringe Freddie Roach mocking vid? ) and the other's a huge ****-eating grinning glad-handing phony, putting even DLH to shame. Just two incompatible shades of ******* personality.

 

Ríos was pretty shot by 2018, and was coming off the DSG loss while Ortíz was coming off the draw with Devon Alexander...so not sure I'd trust Ríos to still get the job done that late, but anytime circa the Alvarado trilogy, he would have annihilated Ortíz who in those days was getting beaten into submission by anybody with a pulse (Josesito, Collazo, Berto II)