In combat sports, there’s nothing quite like parlaying some good old-fashioned shit talking into landing a big fight. It’s a timeless tactic that welterweight boxer Raymond Serrano is apparently well-versed in.
Serrano (21-3, 9 KOs) put his verbal arsenal on full display when questioned by ThaBoxingVoice as to whom he’d like to fight next. Serrano instantly became fixated on one name, and one name only.
“I would like to fight Victor Ortiz,” Serrano told ThaBoxingVoice’s Lucas Ketelle. “I fought in October and (Ortiz’s team) called me on like a week’s notice.”
“So that’s a fight that could happen very soon?” Ketelle asked.
“Yes,” Serrano replied. “I don’t know if (Ortiz) is committed or not. I would like to see the fight. Give me good time to prepare and then we can make the fight happen.
“I think Victor Ortiz has no heart. He falls apart in the big fights, it’s that simple. He comes in strong, he comes in shape, but as soon as he gets hit he falls apart.
“He’s good when he’s doing good, but when it gets tough he quits.”
Cue the ‘well, that escalated quickly.’ If there was no bad blood between the two fighters prior to these comments, one would think that there most certainly will be a juicy beef simmering now. If Serrano’s goal is to piss off Ortiz (31-5-2) enough to get the fight finalized, he might have done just that.
Serrano has won three of his past four fights, but his resume sorely lacks a marquee win after coming up short against Brad Solomon, Emmanuel Taylor and Karim Mayfield. An opportunity to possibly score an upset against a guy like Ortiz is just the type of career-boosting achievement Serrano needs to prove he belongs at the elite level.
For Ortiz, a future date with Serrano would present a chance to further silence his critics by picking up his third win in a row after enduring a brutal three-fight knockout loss streak. A victory might also help catapult his name back into welterweight title relevancy.
If and when these two gentlemen ever get in the ring is to be determined. But in a figurative sense, round one goes to Serrano, without a doubt. Shots fired!
