Throughout the promotion of Star Power: Mayweather vs. Ortiz, WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz has been touted as being a young, strong, hungry champion who will prove to be a tough challenge for the undefeated Floyd Mayweather. Coming off of a career-defining, action-packed victory over previously unbeaten Andre Berto, he was literally hand-picked by Mayweather for that very reason. Although Ortiz has been saying all the right things to assure fans and media alike that he's up for the challenge and confident of victory, at the same time, he's also expressed a sort of non-chalant attitude towards the sport that makes you wonder if he's truly hungry enough to defeat a man who was seemingly born with a pair of boxing gloves on.
During a conference call held last week, Ortiz would make the following comments regarding his career in boxing:
"I was making 140 pounds eating six times a day, sleeping, even snacking, once in while, a Snickers here and there, and of course, my coaches don't know that, but if they didn't know, they do now. Now at 147, I play around. When I say play around, I'm not saying I go out and eat hamburgers from McDonald's every day, but I do once in a while. Maybe, possibly, occasionally, without my coaches knowing, I may somehow hit on a nice burger."
"I was a little kid, but I didn't understand the point of two people beating each other up. That was kind of brutal and harsh for me. And given the fact that I was in school choir and I used to sing school solos and play piano, are you kidding me? Going into that world was a 360 for me and I was like, painful, it was something I didn't really look forward to going to."
"In between fights I mix it up. I go do my thing. That consists of triathlons, snow boarding, skate boarding, surfing, you name it; I do it all. Golfing. I have fun with this thing they call life. You know, and apparently, that's a sin in boxing. But I don't really care. I'm the guy that does have fun and I enjoy my life. I enjoy what God put in front of me on a daily basis."
On "Piers Morgan Tonight", Ortiz would add:
"I never let boxing interfere with my personal life. I love what I do. I was blessed and given a great and talent to share with the world, you know? But at the end of the day, I don't take that home ever and, you know, when I go out with my buddies or something, it's not one of those things where I'm, 'Oh yeah, boxing this and boxing that.' I love what I do, but I separate the two from each other. Otherwise it takes over my life and I'm just like, 'Uh, boxing, boxing, boxing.' So, I kinda have to separate reality from boxing."
Based on those comments, you be the judge. Does Victor Ortiz truly have the hunger and desire to be the first to defeat a man who's never lost in 41 fights throughout a 15-year career? If the going gets tough, will he truly dig down deep, or will he flashback to that fateful night when, after getting dropped several times by Marcos Maidana, he stated, "I'm too young to get beat up like this"? Feel free to send me email at greynolds@fighthype.com and let me know your thoughts.