Would he have won or gotten beaten to a pulp? Against Lomachenko, Ortiz was pressing the fight, staying in the pocket oftentimes, and landed more punches, and more quality punches.
Great post. I literally have no idea b/c i can see him winning over 12 rounds and I can see him getting knocked out. Had Ortiz moved forward too often he wouldve got hurt eventually. 1st half of rnd 7 (i think) Ortiz was attacking. Threw some good combos and got out of range. Ortiz is well and truly capable of fighting a similar way to Kambosis. Teo still has trouble with movers (and taller fighters). Doesn't cut off the ring, doesn't jab enough to set up his power, seems only to use philly shell otherwise, has his hands down. These vulnerabilities were there for Ortiz to exploit and he didn't do it enough to be a clear winner.
He'd have been beaten to a pulp, so last night's fight showed what a multifaceted versatile fighter Ortiz is, with different dimensions to his game, and highlighted how adept he is at adjusting to each opponent's style, so he can give himself the best possible route to victory. Something the very one dimensional Lopez clearly hasn't gotten the hang of. Kind of like GGG was capable of beating Canelo on the front foot in the first fight, then adjusted his style and comprehensively outboxed Canelo on the back foot in the rematch. He dominated Canelo coming and going. Sure, you can credit Lopez's power for this approach, but for him to get credit, he needs to land that power at a consistent clip to actually bank rounds, and he was not. Seriously, Usyk would've walked right through AJ, if AJ didn't have the power to keep him honest. But does AJ deserve credit and rounds, just because he made Usyk apprehensive to go for the kill? Of course not!
Like Teo, Ortiz was a massive 135 pounder, and unlike with Teo, he was way bigger and heavier than Loma. He also fought a Loma who was distracted for obvious reasons, he held a lot more against Loma, and he in his own words ''idolized'' Loma and had been studying him for years and copied things from his style “I think he’s a great fighter. He was one of those guys I idolized. He’s probably the fighter I saw the most when I was growing up,” said Ortiz, the 26-year-old boxing pride of Worcester. “When you’re destined for greatness … I always knew I would fight him,” Ortiz said. “It’s a dream come true to fight your idol. Who wouldn’t have wanted to fight (Floyd) Mayweather or (Mike) Tyson or (Muhammad) Ali? My whole mantra is staying ready and being prepared.”
Ortiz pressed the fight knowing that Loma was smaller, didn’t have huge knockout power, and thought he could bully him. Teo is a bigger puncher so of course it was smarter to try and outbox him from the outside. When you only have 8 KOs against someone like Lopez it’s better to outbox your opponent rather than press the fight and not risk getting knocked out.