With just two weeks left to go before his highly anticipated return to the ring, undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather has been relatively silent during the build-up for his showdown with WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. In fact, other than the typical boasting and bragging from the "Money" Mayweather character we've grown accustomed to seeing on 24/7, Floyd Mayweather hasn't had too much at all to say about his opponent. The same, however, can not be said about Ortiz, who's been doing his best to promote the event by letting everyone know that he will not be number 42 on Mayweather's unblemished record. Just this last week alone, Ortiz made it crystal clear that he's unimpressed with Mayweather's accomplishments and plans on being the first to defeat what he called "a good" but not "great" fighter. While Ortiz has sounded extremely confident, some of his comments make you wonder if he could be underestimating the challenge that lies before him.
During a conference call held earlier this week, Ortiz would make the following comments regarding Mayweather:
"Here's the thing. Forty-one of those fighters that he's fought, none of them were me. So, somebody's in trouble."
"Floyd's overdue. He's way overdue. He's not supposed to be here. He's definitely not supposed to be a 147 pounder and I'm going to see to it that he knows that."
"You know what, Floyd is a good fighter. But, I've never thought he was great; ever since I was a kid. You know when you're a little boy, you sit back and you say, 'Wow. That guy's good. That guy's great.' Oscar was one of those for me. Mosley was definitely one of those for me. Bernard Hopkins was one of those for me. In his prime, Zab Judah was one of those for me. And Floyd, not in his prime, not in his come up, not in his anything, he's ever been that to me. So, I'm definitely not impressed for one, and I'm not a person who's going to hold any kind of respect like those 41 other victims."
"But, as far as I'm concerned, there are no concerns on my end about Floyd, period. Don't care how good he thinks he is or you guys think he is, I'm set in stone and I'm ready to go."
"He's just a careful fighter. He's a global boxer."
"Forty-one of his fighters, he fought the same way every fight. Every single fight except the analysts are too blind to see that he actually fights the same way every fight. Now, I don't really care what he's got to bring, you know, he's done. The moment they mentioned Victor Ortiz versus Mayweather, he was done. Period."
On "Piers Morgain Tonight", Ortiz would also make the following comments:
"Fear doesn't even exist in my dictionary anymore. It was one of those things where my upbringing alone got rid of all that, so I can go into ease and into battle with nothing to worry about."
"I am taking my title home and that means the victory as well, you know, because he sits there and say, 'Uh, yeah, you can have your title. I don't want it.' Well that includes the victory as well, so, you know, I'm taking my belt home along with my victory."
Based on those comments, you be the judge. Is Victor Ortiz truly exuding confidence in the weeks leading up to the biggest challenge of his career, his first ever pay-per-view mega-fight against one of the sport's biggest stars? Or is he underestimating the difficult task of finding a way to defeat a fight who's never lost in 41 fights throughout a 15-year career?