This weekend boxing gives us a pair of good fights on Showtime that I’m going to be highlighting today, as “Vicious” Victor Ortiz fights in his 1st bout since the Floyd Mayweather fight and squares off against Josesito Lopez for the vacant WBC Silver Welterweight Title. And just like last week with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Ortiz has some extra incentive as he has won the “Canelo Sweepstakes” and will face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 15th, barring an upset on Saturday. While on the undercard of that fight, we may have a fight that could steal the show, as Lucas Martin Matthysse fights “The crafty little fox” Humberto Soto.
For someone that is only 25, Victor Ortiz (29-3-2 with 22 KOs) is 1 of the most polarizing fighters in the sports. He has found a way to be known for some many other things that involving how good he can be, whether it’s quitting vs. Maidana or the Balrog-like head butt versus Mayweather; he just finds away to make people ignore his talent. Instead, people should be talking about the exciting fights he’s had, like how exciting that Maidana fight was before he quit, or him knocking down Lamont Peterson twice, or the GREAT fight he had against Andre Berto that got him the Mayweather fight in the 1st place. Ortiz just seems to be a lightning rod for negativity. He isn’t truly embraced by the Mexican community, and even though he puts on a good show, people question if his maturity, and chin, is good enough to be a true headliner.
Unless you follow boxing closely and maybe even If you do follow boxing closely, Josesito Lopez (29-4 with 17 KOs) is not very known. However, Lopez is going into this fight with the ultimate motivation, no one thinks he really is going to win. If it wasn’t for a controversial split decision loss to Jessie Vargas, he would be riding an 8 fight win streak with half of the fights being won by KO or TKO. Lopez isn’t a knockout artist, but he does have some power, but that power was shown at 140, the question is, can he still be effective at 147? Not only is no one giving him a chance good motivation for him, but this is his chance to get his name out there, he is still only 27 and an upset win here on the Showtime stage could be a huge boost for his career. It will be very interesting to see if he can test the questionable chin of Ortiz.
When I look at this fight, I see it as a mirror to the Chavez JR.-Lee fight, in terms that Ortiz has brighter lights in his future and just like Chavez Jr., it’s in the near future. He knows that if he wins his next 2 fights, he goes from being known as a quitter, a head butter, and just a good fighter, to being a top contender, and would probably put his name back in there for a rematch against Mayweather. Not only that, but I feel that he would definitely start to regain the backing of the Mexican community with those 2 wins. Winning this fight, a fight he should win, will open up the doors for Ortiz just like last September, now the question is, will he take advantage of it. I do think he will beat Lopez, but the Alvarez fight will be another article at another time. However for now, my official pick is Ortiz will try to impress like Chavez Jr. did last week and he’ll win by TKO in the 7th rd.
As I stated earlier, the fight that I think will steal the show on Saturday night will be Lucas Martin Matthysse (30-2 with 28 KOs) vs. Humberto Soto (58-7 with 34 KOs). In the press conference, these 2 pretty much made it known that we won’t have to worry about judges for this fight, cause it’s going to be an all out war. They both have skill and lots of power and it should be on full display when they 2 meet on Saturday. Soto has won 15 fights in a roll, 7 of them stopped early, and is ready for a battle, while Matthysse has only lost 2 fights and both of those were controversial. I personally thought he beat both Devon Alexander and Zab Judah. I’m going with Matthysse in this one by 4th rd TKO and I would advise anyone watching this fight to not blink, because it could end in rd 1 if these 2 are serious about going all out early. It will just be a great fight to watch, as both of these fights should be this weekend, so enjoy the fights.
