LAS VEGAS – LAS VEGAS – Don’t ever say sorry to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He’ll make you feel sorry, very sorry, if you do.
Victor Ortiz found out just how sorry Saturday night at the MGM Grand.
Mayweather had no apologies for the way he knocked out Ortiz and no apologies for a tantrum he threw after a question asked by HBO’s Larry Merchant in the aftermath of a crushing left-right combination that caught Ortiz as he was looking at referee Joe Cortez at the end of the fourth round.
“You don’t know shit about boxing,’’ Mayweather screamed at Merchant, who must have felt like Mayweather’s dad, Floyd Sr. “HBO should fire you.’’
Merchant was at ringside before the 34-year-old Mayweather was born. He knows boxing. He also knows enough about good manners and sportsmanship to realize when a line has been crossed. Mayweather was way beyond it.
“If I was 50 years younger, I’d kick your ass,’’ the 80-year-old Merchant said.
Only Merchant didn’t have to say sorry. No apology was necessary for his counter, the best of the night.
It all happened as Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) was beginning take control of the bout for Ortiz’ WBC welterweight title. Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) tried to get more aggressive late in the fourth round. He threw a flurry of punches at Mayweather, whose back was on the ropes. In stepping inside, Ortiz threw his head in attempt at a butt. Cortez stepped in and penalized him a point.
Ortiz appeared to reach over and plant a small kiss on Mayweather’s cheek. As they then moved toward the center of the ring, Mayweather and Ortiz touched gloves. Cortez looked toward the scorer’s table when Mayweather threw a long left that landed with Ortiz’ gloves down and still at his side. Ortiz then looked at Cortez. That’s when Mayweather threw a right that landed like a baseball bat on a stationary baseball.
Ortiz went down, knocked out at 2:59 of the fourth. After he regained some of his consciousness, Ortiz smiled with the look of a victim who had to ask about had just hit him. A few days ago, Ortiz trainer, Danny Garcia, had called Mayweather a dirty fighter. After the bizarre ending, Garcia stood behind his fighter, smiling almost as if he couldn’t believe at how right he was.
At the post-fight news conference, Garcia seemed to blame Cortez more than Mayweather. According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Cortez said “Box.” Ortiz said he never heard him.
“He made a mistake as a result of Joe Cortez’ instructions,” Garcia said in Spanish translated into English by Ortiz manager Rolando Arellano. “Floyd took advantage of that.”
However, Garcia also said that he believes the fight-ending blow will prove to be illegal.
“But we have to review the tape to make sure,” said Arellano, who apologized for Ortiz’s attempted head butt.
Mayweather was as unapologetic a few days ago as he was Saturday night when told about Garcia’s accusation that he was dirty, Mayweather shrugged his shoulders. He countered that boxing has always been a dirty business.
“I got hit with a dirty shot,’’ Mayweather said of Ortiz’ attempted head butt. “He does something dirty. We don’t have to talk about what he did dirty or I did dirty.’’
Sorry, but somebody does. At least, Merchant tried, making him the only winner on a sorry night.
Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) was in against a substitute, somebody named Pablo Cesar Cano (22-1-1, 17 KOs) instead of Lucas Matthysse, who withdrew because of a shoulder injury. But there was no substitute for what Morales faced in winning a TKO after 10 rounds.
Blood stained Morales’ white trunks like butcher cloth. Blood poured from a cut above his left eye, suffered in the seventh. But blood and guts are what have always defined Morales. That’s why he is called Terrible and that’s what he was all over again in the ninth and 10th rounds of a fight for a vacant and controversial 140-pound title.
But the WBC’s version of the championship doesn’t matter much. It’s just tinsel. But Morales is not. He’s still the stubborn, dangerous fighter he has always been, regardless of opponent and no matter what the title. In the middle rounds, Morales looked as if he was in trouble. But then it was clear that he been there, done that. He rocked Cano, a fellow Mexican, with a wicked left hook in the ninth. He busted a cut wide open above a Cano eye with a thundering right in the tenth.
Morales looked at the gushing blood, looked at referee Kenny Bayless and knew it wouldn’t go on much longer. It didn’t. Cano’s corner ended before the 11th.
Las Vegas junior-welterweight Jesse Vargas (17-0, 9 KOs), a Mayweather Promotions fighter, escaped his first loss and retained his prospect status with a split decision over Josesito Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) in the first televised fight Saturday night on a card featured by Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus-Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand.
Lopez, of Riverside, Calif., appeared to be much stronger than the much-hyped Vargas, who began to back away after the first two rounds. For the next few rounds, Lopez delivered body shots and a wicked right hand without much resistance from Vargas, whose punches appeared to have no effect on a California fighter trained by former Oscar De La Hoya cornerman Robert Alcazar.
In the eighth of 10 rounds, Vargas threw a low blow. It appeared to be intentional. It might have been out of frustration. Whatever caused it, it cost Vargas one point, a penalty assessed by referee Tony Weeks. But Vargas began to mount a rally in the ninth and backed up Lopez with an uppercut in the 10th. Apparently that was enough for two judges, who scored it 96-93 and 95-94 for the hometown fighter. The third judge had it 95-94 for Lopez.
Floyd Mayweather’s trainer and uncle, Roger, began his day with a defeat. Oklahoma City welterweight Carson Jones (32-8-2, 22 KOs) won a TKO over the Mayweather-trained Said Quali (28-4, 20 KOs) when the fight ended after the seventh round with Quali still on his stool. Jones knocked down Quali, of Las Vegas, in the fourth. Then, stinging uppercuts from Jones for the next rounds turned Quali’s face into a bloodied, twisted mess.
Super-middleweight Dion Savage (10-2, 6 KOs) had Free Dion on the belt of trunks that were prison-like – black-and-white stripes. Canadian Adonis Stevenson (15-1, 11 KOs) freed him from having to go through eight punishing rounds. Stevenson dropped Savage with a right uppercut about 90 seconds after the opening bell. At 1:57 of the first and Savage hanging on the ropes, referee Tony Weeks stopped it for a Stevenson victory by TKO.
British lightweight Anthony Crolla (22-2, 9 KOs) of Manchester had a dollar sign on his trunks and some luck with him against Juan Manuel Montiel (6-5-3, 1 KO) of Mexico City. With a solid hook, Crolla split open a cut above Montiel’s right eye. Montiel fought through the blood, rallied late in the seventh round and throughout the eighth, but was left with a loss by split decision.
About six hours before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz were expected to step into the ring, Marco Antonio Periban and Dhafir Smith were there to answer a first bell that echoed through an arena as vacant as a foreclosed home.
The seats were empty.
Then again, there wasn’t much to see.
Periban (15-0, 10 KOs), a super-middleweight from Mexico, walked forward and almost over Dhafir Smith (24-22-7, 4KOs) of Upper Darby, Penn., to win a decision Saturday at the MGM Grand in an 8-round matinee on a card that would end at night with Mayweather and Ortiz for the World Boxing Council’s welterweight title.
Periban celebrated his country’s Independence Day by raining shots off Dhafir’s body and head with little resistance. Dhafir tried to back away behind a long jab. Other than a spot under a row or two of empty seats, there was nowhere to hide.
He had the name and an offer. But when it was over, Las Vegas junior-lightweight Cassius Clay still had the name, but a defeat instead of an offer. A contract possibility with Mayweather Promotions was lost in Kyrone Butler’s four-round victory by unanimous decision. Clay couldn’t seal the deal, because he couldn’t overcome the quickness possessed by the shorter Butler (1-0), also of Las Vegas.
