Try as one might, it is impossible to escape the yada yada about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, Joe Cortez and Larry Merchant. I’ve tried. Trust me, I’ve tried. Just when you think you’ve heard every argument echo from pillar-to-post, however, there’s another one. There’s no final word, I suspect, simply because there’s some truth in all of them.
Yeah, Ortiz’ head-butting was dirty. Yeah, Mayweather’s punches were legal, yet cheap. Yeah, Ortiz was foolish not to be vigilant with hands up and ready instead of down and helpless. Yeah, it appears Cortez was negligent when he apparently signaled the fight to resume, yet looked the other way when Mayweather threw a left and then the right that knocked out a defenseless Ortiz with one second left in the fourth round. Yeah, Ortiz got what he deserved.
Yeah, Mayweather behaved like a punk when he attacked Merchant’s professionalism with an expletive-laced tantrum at the 80-year-old HBO commentator. And, yeah, Merchant might have crossed a journalistic line when he involved himself in the story by countering that 50 years ago he would have kicked Mayweather’s immature rear.
But there’s one thing I haven’t heard: What would we be saying this week if Ortiz had been carried out on a stretcher? Would the tone of this argument be different if Ortiz was in hospital bed, still unconscious, five days after he was knocked out by a punch he never saw?
Mayweather’s punches have been called un-sportsman-like. No, they weren’t. They were dangerous.
Any punch is, but none more dangerous than one not seen. That inherent danger is the reason for the boxing cliché and commandment about protecting oneself at all times. Ortiz forgot that one. But Mayweather, who unlike Ortiz pays attention to detail, knows about that danger better than anyone in his generation.
He has often said that it is “not cool” to endure punishment. With his brilliant defense, he has eluded the painful damage suffered by so many others in what Mike Tyson called the “hurt business.’’
He knows what that right hand could have inflicted. He’s lucky – we all are – that it didn’t result in the lethal potential that lurked in a punch that could have been thrown when the chaos had cleared. Then, Cortez would have been watching. Then, Ortiz would have no doubts about whether the fight had resumed.
Then, Mayweather would have won without argument.
Mayweather-Ortiz, Part II
Here’s something else I didn’t hear: Instead of attacking Merchant, Mayweather could have used the opportunity to tell fans that he was sorry the fight had to end the way it did. He could have explained that he had to finish it then and there, because of the danger he faced from further head butts from Ortiz. Instead, he storms out of the ring.
For casual fans who don’t know or understand boxing’s ancient code of conduct, Mayweather behaved like a motorist who hits a jaywalker and then angrily says he was within the letter of the law because the guy wasn’t in the crosswalk. OK, but at a gut level it still doesn’t feel right.
AZ NOTES
· After pushing his 140-pound record to 13-0 with 12 knockouts on Sept. 17 in Parker, Ariz., Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr., might make his next appearance on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard Nov. 12 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. The plan is to have Benavidez fight for a junior world title sometime next year.
· Former super-featherweight champion Jesse James Leija showed up Tuesday at Central Boxing, an old gym in downtown Phoenix where he was training hotel-and-motel proprietors for a charity event in Las Vegas. Leija’s take on Mayweather-Ortiz was similar to that of other fighters. Ortiz set himself up for retaliation with the head butts, Leija said. “I was pulling for Victor, but he got what he deserved,’’ Leija said. “Mayweather did what he had to. I would have done it, too.’’
