This is a complicated situation so for you to understand it we need to start from the beginning.
Victor Ortiz was a rising star with an undefeated record when he quit against Marco Maidana and when I say quit he just decided in his own words that he didn’t want to get hit anymore.
It was an astonishing admission rarely heard by a boxer. For awhile Ortiz’s reputation was in the trash, but little by little he regain his status.
When he fought Andre Berto he was knocked down twice and one of those knockdowns an elephant wouldn’t have gotten up from but Ortiz did and he went on to beat up Berto in route to a career changing win.
With his reputation as a quitter behind him he got a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather, but in the biggest fight of his career he lost his mind, fought dirty and was rewarded with a two piece and biscuit by Floyd and a KO loss.
During the post fight press conference he again made some very odd and curious statements and his reputation took another hit.
He was suppose to fight Berto in a rematch earlier in the year, but Berto got hurt. The rematch should have been tonight to but Berto got caught with steroids in his system.
It was ironic because Berto accused Ortiz of being on steroids. People started to feel sorry for Ortiz.
Josesito Lopez was your typical late fight replacement. A good fighter who no one outside hardcore boxing fans knew. He was just suppose to give Ortiz a decent fight to knock off the ring rust, no one gave him a real shot to win.
During the build up to the Ortiz vs. Lopez fight, Canelo Alvarez had signed on to fight Paul Williams, but unfortunately Paul was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. Next up was James Kirkland, but a combination of him not being fully recovered from shoulder surgery and wanting crazy money disqualified him. Finally Golden Boy turned to Ortiz.
It was a good matchup and one most in the boxing community looked forward to, only one problem it pissed Lopez off.
Imagine being in any sport and your opponent thinks so little of you he makes plans for his next opponent as if beating you is a given.
I would be annoyed too.
From the 1st round you could tell Lopez was either going to win or get knocked out trying. It was a close fight even though Ortiz was ahead on all the scorecards, but when you are the underdog it is best not to let it go to the scorecards.
Lopez didn’t have to worry about that because this happened.
Now, that you know the back history of Ortiz you can see why people are calling him a quitter (that are saying much worse things on social media).
I understand that school of thought because I have watched Boxers fight through injuries during a fight, most recently Tim Bradley and Eddie Chambers.
There have been fighters who have fought through broken jaws before most famously Ali against Ken Norton (14 rounds with a broken jaw for Ali).
I have said many times that I can never be a boxer, you have to be a special type of crazy to get punched repeatedly in the head and body for a living.
The only thing I would have liked Victor Ortiz to have done is at least give it one more round, to see if he could have withstood the pain.
He didn’t give himself a chance to do something great and that is unfortunate. If the pain was too much or he got knocked out, then so be it, but he never gave himself a chance.
If he just ran around for 3 rounds he possibly could have still won by decision even if he just landed a few punches.
I won’t call him a quitter, because he was legitimately hurt, but he doesn’t have that special something that all great fighters have when faced with adversity.
His heart just isn’t of a champion.
Here is the ending of the fight courtesy of Jose3030