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Floyd Mayweather Jnr may have extended his undefeated record to 42-0 with a win over Victor Ortiz, but it was the manner of the end of Sunday’s fight (Australian time) with Ortiz that has left boxing fans with a foul taste in their mouths.
Mayweather nailed Ortiz with two punches as his opponent had his hands down and wasn’t defending himself.
The two-punch combo caught Ortiz unawares and it was fight over via Knock Out in the fourth round. This came afer Ortiz had head-butted Mayweather on the ropes.
Ugly, ugly scenes in Las Vegas, a city that has seen it all. Both fighters are partly to blame for what hapenned.
Ortiz’s headbutt was disappointing, a low act from a fighter from who was behind on all three ref’s cards after the first three rounds.
He also he didn’t defend himself when he should have, his hands were by his side and he left himself open in the ring. A cardinal sin in boxing.
But after watching replays of the controversial incident, you can see that Ortiz was genuinely apologetic for headbutting Mayweather. It seemed like an uncharacteristic rush of blood from the fighter, and something that he didn’t mean to do.
Mayweather, clincially and brutally, took advantage of Ortiz’s mistake. There is no white line with Mayweather, no mercy and no forgiveness.
He believes totally in his cause, his greatness, his talent and his skill.
In defence of ‘Pretty Boy’, he has been the victim of foul play before. I can remember vivdly his clash with Zab Judah, the similar-trash-talking pugilist who Kosta Tszyu famously dispatched years ago.
When they clashed back in 2006, Mayweather was beating Judah hands down when in the tenth round Judah landed a low blow to Mayweather’s groin and followed it up with a punch to the back of his hand.
It was the action of a desperate, well-beaten and dirty fighter.
But Mayweather shrugged off this incident, and the dramas that followed in the ring with his uncle and Judah’s father, and won the fight that day.
Judah’s ploy to unsettle him with dirty tactics had failed.
On Sunday it seemed that Mayweather had thought back to that night against Judah and said ‘no more’. Tired of being on the receiving end of such tactics, he dished out his own. His response was technically legal, but morally wrong.
For Floyd, the result and his record is all that matters. But the boxing world is left to contend with another farce.
After the fight Mayweather, with adrenalin pumping, a gaol sentence hanging over him and the spectre of Manny Pacquiao to deal with, was ultra defensive – abusing commentators, denying Ortiz a rematch and raving into the microphone.
At the end of the day, Mayweather’s reputation has suffered another hit. But more importantly, boxing has received another punch to the jaw. Just how many more it can take remains to be seen.
READ MORE: Mayweather vs Ortiz: One fan’s perspective
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