Victor Ortiz, once knocked out by Floyd Mayweather in contentious circumstances, is ready for another title run – and not necessarily just in bare knuckle fighting.
The 39-year-old Californian is slated to make his BKB debut on Saturday, July 18, at The Novo in Los Angeles, having signed a multi-fight agreement with the organization.
Ortiz was a WBC welterweight champion in his 33-7-3 (25 KOs) career. He last boxed in 2022 and said he never retired.
In that fight, he climbed off the deck to win a 10-round decision over the 20-19-1 Todd Manuel, and he’d only had one fight in the prior three years, a decision loss to fellow veteran Robert Guerrero.
Ortiz, who was born in Kansas, told BoxingScene he planned to fight for another seven years.
Asked whether he might return to gloved boxing, Ortiz said: “Whatever God has in store for me is where I’m going at this point in time. This is my appointed spot and that’s where we’re at. I enjoy what I do, brother. I love what I do. And you know what, even the three in the morning runs, man, I enjoy it all.”
Is he enjoying his return?
“I mean, I never left,” he countered.
“I never left. The media wrote me off. People wrote me off. The close ones wrote me off. People in my inner circle wrote me off, but you know what? It’s expected when people can’t see themselves past a certain point. They don’t want to see somebody else succeed. And that’s not my problem. I know where I’m at.”
Ortiz boxed a host of big names in his career, including two bouts with Andre Berto, Devon Alexander, Josesito Lopez, Vivian Harris, Marcos Maidana, Luis Collazo, and Lamont Peterson.
But it was against Mayweather, then 41-0, when Ortiz got the most headlines.
They boxed in 2011 and, after Ortiz moved to headbutt Mayweather and had a point taken, the southpaw then went to apologize to Mayweather.
The Las Vegas-based “Money” fired off a left hook, then a right hand, with seconds left in the round, and Ortiz was down.
Asked if he regretted what happened in the fight more than a decade on, Ortiz said: “I thought I did for many years. When I sit back and think about it, I was a young 22-year-old going on 23, thinking that I was somebody, that I was something special. If I would have beat Floyd, I never would have found Jesus. At this point in time, I’m happy I didn’t beat Floyd, man. It would have set me up for destruction.”
Asked why he presented himself to Mayweather as an open target, Ortiz said: “I wanted to feel the straight right. If you notice correctly, what I said to him, I said, ‘Just like I thought, you can’t crack an egg.’”
So Mayweather really couldn’t crack?
So what happened? Was it a case of Ortiz headbutting Floyd and trying to make it rough?
“Well, correction,” Ortiz said. “There’s things that people don’t yet know. He [Mayweather] throws a right hook [earlier in the fight]. The right hook misses entirely, but he catches you with his elbow. I’m left-handed. Therefore, my right eye was catching his elbow. It started closing my eye. I kept telling the ref, ‘Elbows.’
‘Keep fighting, Ortiz.’
“I kept telling my corner, ‘He’s hitting me with his elbows.’ ‘Tell the ref.’ ‘I’ve been telling him since the first round.’
“By the time I know it, my eyes are swelling. The fourth round, the corner tells me to tell the ref. ‘I’ve been telling him… He’s not doing nothing.
“Right before [the start of the fourth round], seconds out, mouthpiece in, he says, ‘Headbutt the SOB.’ That was the last direction I received. ‘Headbutt the SOB.’
“I wasn’t trying to headbutt him, but that was the last direction.
“Then he did it again. I had him against the ropes and he’s doing this [trying to fend Ortiz off with his defense]. That’s not working for him because I’m shooting from over here [to Floyd’s left]. ‘Boom, boom.’
“He throws a hook, misses the punch, but ‘wham, boom [elbow].’ In that moment of time, in the heat of the moment, I put down and I just went for a headbutt. He made up this whole, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, of course.’ Really, really played it off. ‘Oh my gosh,’ whatever. I felt bad in that moment. Never, ever fouled in my life, my whole career, in the pros, in the amateurs. Never, ever, ever. So I give him a hug and a kiss. I said, ‘Keep it clean, Floyd, you’re hurting me, man [with the elbows]. Come on, bro. Cut the crap with the elbows.’
“Now I have my hands down. ‘Ref, ref, ref, time in, ref.’ ‘Boom,’ I get hit once. I said, ‘Okay… I deserve it. I deserve, we’re even, we’re even.
“He hits me and I go down. When I went down, I was like, ‘You’re serious right now?’
“And he [Mayweather] backed up. ‘That’s boxing, baby.’
“That’s not boxing. You’re cheating, Floyd.”
“And then the ref looks at me on the floor, looks at Floyd, looks at me again, and counts me from seven. That was the end of my reign.”
