Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Victor Ortiz & undercard RBR

Figured I'd use this thread as a means to post my overall thoughts on card.

Vargas-Lopez was a fun, hard-fought encounter with multiple shifts of momentum. Vargas displayed cool under pressure and an ability to stick to his game plan even when things weren't going his way. Vargas has a nice jab, too...Which will serve him well down the road. Lopez acquitted himself well, and did good work with the hook once he got into range, but would have helped his cause had he attempted to jab every once in a while, rather than chug in behind a high guard. Close, but deserved decision for "The Next Generation".

I had only seen clips of Cano fight on YT, but something told me he wasn't going to get blown out early, and make a fight of it. And he certainly did. He stayed cool, landed some nice shots throughout the fight, and hung in there as best as he could even as his face was being cut to ribbons. But credit to Morales, who found a way to come back strong and land the right repeatedly after looking completely lost at sea over the first couple of rounds. He dealt well with adversity on that occasion- and when Cano came storming back and cut him, he handled himself even better and managed to regain control and keep it for the remainder of the fight. Maybe not a FOTY candidate, but still a very good and very dramatic fight- and it certainly would be nice to see El Terrible bow out after finding one final way to pull a fight out of the fire against a much younger opponent.

Alvarez-Gomez was kinda weird actually. I mean, Alvarez looked really good in the opening frame and dropped Gomez with a jab; but then it seemed as though he decided to practice his shoulder roll technique for the next two or three rounds. He didn't do a bad job of it at all, really...but still allowed his foe to gain confidence and work his way back into the fight and eventually into the lead. Still, in spite of the fact that Gomez was doing good work, I kind of had the feeling that Canelo would regain control as soon as he started to focus as much on offense as on defense. Eventually that happened and he forced a stoppage- and though it seemed a bit premature, Gomez wasn't throwing anything in return and his legs certainly seemed to be unsteady as the ref was leading him away. A pretty good showcase fight for Canelo- who is still a work in progress but has the potential to become something special once he fuses all the elements of his game together into one complete package.

As for the main event...

I was concerned about Mayweather's latest layoff and how it might affect him going into the fight. But when Floyd was able to beat Ortiz to the punch in the opening seconds of the fight, and step out of harm's way, I realized that these factors weren't going to come into play during the course of this fight. Mayweather controlled the first round, and landed enough to take the second on my card, too. You could make the case that Ortiz's increased aggression, and ability to keep the connect rate relatively close was enough in the second to earn a share of the second stanza; so I wasn't terribly surprised that Lederman gave it to him on his card. Third round was, for want of a better term "vintage Mayweather" with him whipping right hands into the face his opponent, and taking very little in return.

And then came the fourth round.

A lot of posters are talking about the actual knockout, but it's important to key in on what happened in the two minutes and fifty or so seconds that happened before that.

It's important to remember that Mayweather began the stanza by throwing a couple of very nice multi-punch combinations that clearly bothered Ortiz. It's important to remember how quickly he composed himself on the two occasions where Victor was able to drive him into the ropes after landing decent shots- and how quickly he was able to regain control the first time once the action moved back to the center of the ring.

And it's important to note that on Ortiz tried to head-butt Mayweather on two previous occasions during the fourth round...With roughly 2:20 left in the round the first time, and 1:19 left on the second occasion...Before he finally nailed Floyd on his third attempt. Ortiz repeatedly tried to use an illegal tactic on the inside in order to gain an advantage over and to cause damage to his opponent.

That's why I have absolutely no sympathy for Ortiz about what happened next.

He'd already apolgized immediately after, and Mayweather had touched gloves with him as he was making his way to the neutral corner in a gesture of acceptance. As IB said, Cortez waved his hands together to signal time in, and Ortiz still felt the need to make a show of contrition. Mayweather touched the gloves, paused for a split-second and then threw the hook. Maybe it wasn't sporting...but understandable given the circumstances.

Thing is...Ortiz didn't go down from that shot. He stepped back with his hands down and glanced toward Cortez as if to ask for assistance. That was the absolute worst thing he could have done, because Mayweather took advantage of the opening and landed the right to end matters.

So the kayo is legit, imo. Anyone who claims that it wasn't was watching a different fight than I was.

As for what this fight tells us, it seems that Floyd's speed has deteriorated a bit, which is why he fought flat footed for most of the fight. But his sense of timing hasn't really diminished too much-which is why he was able to defend himself well in the pocket, and land shots repeatedly against his opponent. And if anything, fighting in a less mobile fashion has allowed him to put more power into his punches- because even prior to the knockout Ortiz looked to be bothered on several occasions by the shots he had absorbed.

The bottom line is that Mayweather didn't run, and he didn't fold when Ortiz pressured him and landed shots. He simply went out there, took care of business, and managed to produce the emphatic finish that a lot of detractors felt he wasn't capable of achieving at this stage of his career. And something tells me that ending was going to happen anyway, probably in the next three or four rounds, based on the manner in which this fight was progressing.

Anyway, that's my take on what happened.

Stellar RBR as usually IB. Nice recap on what turned out to be a pretty good night at the fights. :good

 

Very good.

:good

this thread was the first one I looked for this morning....haha. Always good.

 

Yes,the same robe that he claimed was gonna be for when he fought pac

 

flyod was never hurt

 

Oh,I thought you were saying he was like dazed or something.And I only recently saw the YT video with him showing that robe off and saying "this was for the Pacquiao fight"

 

I felt Ortiz was architect of his own downfall somewhat. He was trying to load up on every punch, so Mayweather looked noticeably quicker than him, which made it harder for him to respond with counters when trying to pull the trigger on his openings. There were a couple of times where he tried the counter left, but was a fraction too late because of the aforementioned. Ortiz also didn't help himself by smothering himself when he got inside. I felt Ortiz would be able to break through having watched his previous fights, but he negated that by getting too close and smothering his work, which is what Hatton did. I still dont know why he decided to do that. Perhaps it was because Floyd took away his confidence early and frustrated him, so when he got into position he got a rush of blood to the head?

I knew Floyd would control and dictate range, that Ortiz would get out-boxed early, but my question was what happens when Ortiz starts bringing it? Now I think Ortiz still broke through occasionally, but I cant help but think his success was more sporadic because he was loading up so much and smothering himself, which is credit to Floyd, as I believe the story of the fight was that Floyd took his confidence away early by holding his feet, which I felt helped stop Ortiz getting any momentum and gaining any confidence, which led to his frustration.

I always felt Floyd needed to get his respect because Ortiz was potentially going to become more aggressive down the stretch of the fight once he abandoned trying to Box with Floyd, however it seems Ortiz got too frustrated before he got the chance to ask him the questions he potentially could of. When Ortiz did apply pressure, a lot of his work was underpinned by the fact he'd already been frustrated, therefore he got too close which negated what I perceived could of been too his advantage, inside.

Lack of experience/composure was seemingly a bigger problem than I anticipated, as he didn't fight his normal fight once frustrated.


Floyd was immense imo. I was very impressed with him, his long range game was brilliant, and he utilized the perfect tactic to defuse Ortiz by holding his feet early and taking his confidence. With all that said, I still would of liked to of seen what would of happened had Ortiz been able to get to the mid rounds, just to see if he could of been able to calm down and make an impression by applying pressure, cause in those small instances when Floyd was on the ropes, it looked as though if he could of stopped loading up and getting so closer, that he might of been able to have more success.