Brandon Rios: Victor Ortiz Life Story "Is a Lie, Image Is Phony"

This is an Rios interview where he says Ortiz whole life is a “lie”. Also, there is a video out there with Ortiz sister, Carmen, where she said she was the one that took care of him and his brother when she turned 18…

Brandon Rios Says Victor Ortiz Life Story Is a Lie, Image Is Phony

Victor Ortiz has his fair share of doubters heading into Saturday night.
None bigger than Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios.
The WBA lightweight champion grew up in Garden City, Kansas alongside Victor Ortiz, who is a day away from a pay-per-view mega fight with Floyd Mayweather . Through HBO’s reality series 24/7, the public has become quite familiar with Mayweather after several appearances, but it is Ortiz that the world is beginning to learn about.
The allure of Mayweather is that he is comfortable playing the role of dastardly heel. Juxtaposed with smiling, clean-cut foes, “Pretty Boy” makes for easily marketable bouts, including the biggest pay-per-view event of all-time against Oscar De La Hoya.
In Ortiz, a De La Hoya protégé and Golden Boy Promotions product, the public has been presented with an easily adoptable charge. The 24-year old is a young, good-looking, happy-go-lucky fighter with a heart wrenching back story, of whom American and Mexican fans can both take ownership of.
“People think he’s a nice and gentle kid,” said Rios. “That’s just the image people want to see. But people don’t know the real story and the real side of him.”
The “real side” of Ortiz is something Rios claims to have seen firsthand, long before fans were dishing out $55 to see him fight on Saturday.
Rios and Ortiz are known in the boxing community to be mortal enemies, along with their trainers, Robert Garcia and Danny Garcia, whom both met upon moving from Kansas to Oxnard, California as amateur fighters. Robert and Danny are brothers; no longer on speaking terms after Ortiz left Robert to train with Danny.
“Victor left Robert, which is no big deal, that’s between him and Robert. But when he left Robert, he started talking **** about me. He started telling some people that I’m a ****** and this and that, that I’m a crackhead,” said Rios.
Over the years, there has been lots of speculation as to how the feud between Rios and Ortiz started. Rumors floated around that Ortiz had slept with Rios’ wife, or that Rios was jealous of Ortiz achieving mainstream success before he did.
According to Rios, after a three month stint in a Kansas jail, he traveled home to visit his probation officer, and called up Ortiz to congratulate him on a recent victory. It was then that things turned sour, as Rios claims Ortiz brushed him off during the phone call.
When Rios returned to Oxnard, people in the city and at the boxing gym told him that Ortiz had been gossiping about him and Robert Garcia.
“Everyone’s telling me that he’s been saying I’m a ****in’ crackhead, that I’ll never make it, I’m a nobody, I’m a **** up. Which, at that point, I’ll agree with him, yes I was a **** up, I’ll admit it, yes I was getting into trouble and stuff like that. But c’mon dude, you don’t ****in’ go behind somebody’s back and talk ****,” said Rios. “I mean literally, he was always ****ing with us, with Robert, with me, doing flyers saying Robert’s a ******, that he’s a molester.”
Last year, Robert Garcia told Ernest Gabion of ***********.com that he received phone calls from someone threatening to hurt him and his family. Garcia heard the man on the phone ask “where does he live, Victor?” and surmised that Ortiz was sending a hitman over a purse he alleges his former trainer stole.
Rios says the threats were far more real with him. He claims Ortiz told the man who had harrassed Garcia to shoot him.
“He had a guy come to my house. He went to my house—at the time it was my girlfriend, now she’s my wife. The guy pulled up behind me, I forget which fight we were watching, but he pulled up behind me. And then when he pulled around, the guy that (Ortiz) supposedly got, and we know it was him because the guy even told us. He pulled behind me and he got out with a gun and he pointed it at me, but I took off running,” said Rios.
The image of Ortiz sending goons to someone's household is in stark contrast with the portrait painted of him over the years. The story of the WBC welterweight titlist being abandoned by his mother at age 14, and his father shortly thereafter is well-known in boxing circles. After the two left foster care, Victor moved to California to start his boxing career, and eventually took custody of his brother.
“That’s ****in’ fake. That’s just a fantasy land that he’s living in,” said Rios. “He was never in foster care.”
When reached for comment, Ortiz's manager Rolando Arellano was dismissive of the claims.
"Victor respond to Brandon Rios? Not worth his time. We don't give a **** what he says, he's insignificant. We're fighting Floyd Mayweather. He should go back to Kansas. We make more money on training expenses than he does for a title defense. Who cares," said Arellano.
Mayweather recently questioned the validity of Ortiz’s life story at a press conference as well, saying he knew “the real truth,” and that Ortiz had actually gone to high school in California.
It’s possible that Mayweather consulted Rios in order to come to that conclusion, as “Bam Bam” insists that Ortiz left home on his own accord, and that a local elementary school teacher offered to take Victor into her home. Allegedly, he accepted and moved in, choosing to live there instead of with his father.
“Victor was embarrassed, he was ashamed of his Dad, he was ashamed of how he was living,” said Rios.
Ortiz said on the 24/7 series that his father recently had harsh words for him, and mocked that fact that Victor had “his” last name tattooed on his back.
“His Dad is still there, his Dad loves him,” claims Rios. “Look at it from the first interview where he tells the story, it always changes. It changes all the time. This guy’s lived the life of three people already, three lifetimes. What the ****? The way he’s talking about the way he lived at eight years old. That’s insane. That’s ****ing insanity right there.”
During the final week of media appearances, Mayweather has aligned himself with Ortiz’s enemies, heightening the animosity at the right time in terms of pay-per-view promotion. The undefeated welterweight has also extended the invitation for Rios and Robert Garcia to walk him to the ring on Saturday.
“I don’t wanna do that. I don’t want them to say oh, he lost because Brandon was there. **** that, I want him to be on his best game so he can ****in’ see what level he’s at.”
Just as he scoffs at Ortiz’s every word, Rios questions his chances of pulling the upset.
“If he goes in and tries to bang with him, Mayweather’s too smart and too fast, and he’ll catch him and eventually knock him out,” said Rios.