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Battling Heart Failure
By Nat Gottlieb Courtesy of
HBO.com
Vince Lombardi said that "once you learn to
quit, it becomes a habit." Can Victor Ortiz kick the
habit?
At 22 years old, Victor Ortiz was
considered everybody's future Golden Boy—a can't-miss
prospect with a winning smile and an exciting style of
fighting. Until he lost to Marco Rene Maidana on June
27. After the disappointing sixth-round TKO, Ortiz's
stock has plummeted and he's been widely written off. Is
it wise to do that to a young boxer after just one loss?
History shows that many fighters
have lost for the first time and then come back to be
great champions. The difference with Ortiz is that he
committed a cardinal sin of boxing: Refusing to go home
on his shield.
Max Kellerman says Ortiz's decision
not to fight on after being knocked down and battered in
round six by Maidana raises serious doubts about the
young fighter's heart. "If I had to guess I think it is
more likely than not that he will quit again, based on
his past behavior. But it is not written in stone."
Kellerman learned that lesson nine
years ago when undefeated champion Vitali Klitschko quit
on his stool before the seventh round after suffering a
shoulder injury against Chris Byrd. Kellerman recalls
that "I said to myself, 'He is not willing to do what it
takes to go through rough times.'"
It was a harsh judgment considering
Klitschko had torn tendons in his left shoulder in the
second round and fought on into the sixth until the pain
became unbearable. Despite the injury, Kellerman still
felt Klitschko should have continued. He has since
reassessed his thinking. "Only later did I realize
Klitschko didn't know what was expected of him,"
Kellerman said. "The fans in Germany were very negative
to Vitali after that fight, so he came to learn he was
expected to go on. And that's what he did in his fight
with Lennox Lewis." (Klitschko suffered a deep cut
underneath his left eyebrow early but kept fighting and
was winning on all three scorecards, 58-56, when the
referee stopped it.)
In the aftermath of the Maidana
fiasco, Ortiz has certainly been told what is expected
of him. Fans have battered him like a pinata on boxing
forums and writers have taken turns sticking poison pens
in him. If Ortiz hasn't learned the lesson that
Klitschko did, he probably never will, and could end up
as just another talented guy who amounted to nothing.
Kellerman did the stunning
post-fight interview with Ortiz for HBO, and was as
surprised as anyone that the young fighter decided not
to keep going. "Earlier in the fight Ortiz did deal with
adversity when he got up from a first round knockdown
and continued to fight. But I think after the second
knockdown in round six he said to himself, 'Okay, I got
up and gave it my best but my best is not good enough
tonight.' Ortiz is a smart kid and he realized he wasn't
winning the fight so why take a beating."
In the real world, nobody would
crucify you for that kind of thinking. But boxing has
its own culture and unwritten laws. "Most North American
fans, because of the nature of boxing, feel that if you
can't impose your will on a fighter you still need to
keep going. Fans want to see a fighter willing to risk
everything in order to win," Kellerman says.
Perhaps a big factor in Ortiz's
decision was that he had knocked Maidana down three
times with his best shots, and the guy just kept getting
up like a terminator and firing bombs. "No doubt about
it; that affects a fighter psychologically," Kellerman
says. "Any fighter will tell you the same thing. Ortiz's
behavior after the fight told fans what they didn't want
to hear. He disappointed many people."
Kellerman says Muhammad Ali came
close to doing that twice in his storied career, but
trainer Angelo Dundee literally pushed him off his
stool. In his first fight with Sonny Liston, "Ali wanted
to quit after the fourth round when he had a burning
sensation in his eyes and couldn't see. He told Dundee
to cut off his gloves. Then in his third fight with
Frazier, Ali was so exhausted he wanted to quit before
the 15 round started even though he was winning."
But unlike Ali, Ortiz is not a
proven warrior. He has the skills to become one and can
win back fans, but Kellerman wonders if the young
fighter's head is in the right place. "With Ortiz, the
question is how will he handle it? After a fighter
quits, he wakes up the next morning and sees the world
is still there, the sun still rises in the sky, and he
comes to the realization that if you quit it is not the
end of the world. That makes it easier to quit the next
time."
It is unlikely that Ortiz's heart
will be tested in his December 12 fight with Antonio
Diaz, a 33-year-old lacking the hands of stone that
Maidana does. Diaz is a former two-time welterweight
title challenger who retired in 2005, came back three
years later and has won all four of his fights against
journeymen, but none by knockout.
This bout is clearly designed as a
confidence builder and a bridge back for Ortiz, but even
an impressive victory will do little to erase lingering
doubts. Jack Dempsey once said, "A champion is someone
who gets up when he can't." Until Ortiz shows he can do
that, fans will question whether he has the heart to be
one.
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