Andre Berto earns redemption, knocks out Victor Ortiz in rematch

Andre Berto earns redemption, knocks out Victor Ortiz in rematch
Mark E. Ortega
USA TODAY
April 30, 2016

CARSON, Calif. — It may have come many years later than he hoped, but Andre Berto finally got sweet redemption against Victor Ortiz.

Climbing off the canvas in the second round, Berto fought his way back and stopped Ortiz in the fourth round of their PBC on FOX main event at the StubHub Center in front of 7,760 fans. He avenged the first defeat of his professional career, a decision loss to Ortiz back in April of 2011 that was many people’s Fight of the Year.

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Commentary: Calling Alvarado a ‘quitter’ is unfair

Commentary: Calling Alvarado a ‘quitter’ is unfair
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
October 21, 2013


When Tony Weeks went to the corner of Mike Alvarado at the completion of the 10th round during his WBO 140-pound title defense against Ruslan Provodnikov, the veteran referee gave Alvarado every opportunity to continue.

Alvarado's trainer Rudy Hernandez made it clear that he was intent on stopping the fight, though he gave Alvarado multiple opportunities to say he wanted to continue.

Alvarado stayed quiet. By definition, he quit.

However, for fans and critics to question Alvarado's manhood and heart afterwards is where a line should be drawn.

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Golden Boy mostly "ghosts" for Guerrero's win

Golden Boy mostly "ghosts" for Guerrero's win
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
July 30, 2012


When boxing promotional juggernaut Golden Boy Promotions announced their most recent run of major fights, most experts thought if one of the house fighters was going to lose, Gilroy, Calif.'s Robert Guerrero felt the part.

Instead, Golden Boy lost Victor Ortiz to a broken jaw—as well the projected Saul Alvarez pay-per-view showdown that was tied into it. They lost Amir Khan to a figuratively broken chin as he suffered a shock loss to a mostly under-appreciated Danny Garcia.

Noticeably missing from this past fight week in San Jose were Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar De La Hoya, CEO Richard Schaefer, as well as main matchmaker Eric Gomez. Both are in London for the Olympics, no doubt working on softening up the American boxing team to turn pro with them, likely dangling the announced deal between CBS and Golden Boy to promote their pro debuts on network television.

It must be noted that Schaefer did in fact call Guerrero immediately following the press conference from London, where it was around 6 a.m.

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Robert Guerrero hopes to keep Golden Boy applecart from being overturned

Robert Guerrero hopes to keep Golden Boy applecart from being overturned
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
July 27, 2012


It has been more than a year and a half since a major fight took place in northern California. The region is home to arguably three of the sport's best fighters in the world, with Oakland's Andre Ward, San Leandro's Nonito Donaire and Gilroy's Robert Guerrero all winning their assortment of important bouts over their careers.

Ward returns to Oakland on Sept. 8 after fighting in southern California and Atlantic City in his last two contests. Donaire has not fought once in northern California since bursting on the scene following a devastating KO of Vic Darchinyan five years ago. Guerrero hasn't fought in the area since 2009.

The three fighters have a good rapport with each other and always seem to be trying to one-up each other with each fight. Guerrero has a chance to sway the locals in his favor with a victory over Selcuk Aydin in San Jose on Saturday, televised by Showtime.

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Josesito Lopez and the Eight-Year Plan

Josesito Lopez and the Eight-Year Plan
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
June 28, 2012


Though many memorable moments remain from last Saturday's shocking result at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, one of those moments that stuck with me late into the following week about Josesito Lopez was simply him making his ringwalk. Emblazoned on the right breast of his jacket was a large logo: Thompson Boxing.

Josesito Lopez was the first fighter Thompson Boxing signed to a contract in 2004. Though they cut the opening day ribbon on their company in 2000, Lopez was the first fighter to sign an exclusive deal to be promoted by the Orange County-based outfit.

Both promoter and fighter have ridden through their fair share of bumps in the road, but Lopez's upset win this past Saturday over Victor Ortiz was an unquestionable high point.

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Family Drama at the Center of Ortiz-Lopez Tonight

Family Drama at the Center of Ortiz-Lopez Tonight
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
June 23, 2012


At Friday's weigh-in for the Victor Ortiz-Josesito Lopez card taking place at Staples Center later Saturday, TQBR had a chance to catch up with Ortiz trainer Danny Garcia afterwards.

In an article posted at TQBR on June 19, Josesito Lopez and his trainer Henry Ramirez were quoted as saying that Garcia's father Eduardo had giving them insight on how to beat Ortiz. Eduardo started out Victor as a fighter.

“I think it is a bunch of bull,” said Danny Garcia when asked what he thought about it. “I think that Josesito's trainer Henry is just trying to play mind games, and even if he did help there is no information that is going to help Josesito Lopez beat Victor tomorrow. Even if my dad was working in their corner, that wouldn't change the outcome of the fight.”

TQBR had a chance to relay Danny Garcia's thoughts to Ramirez earlier Saturday.

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Josesito Looks to Upset the Odds Against Victor Ortiz

Josesito Looks to Upset the Odds Against Victor Ortiz
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
June 19, 2012

There aren't many giving Riverside, Calif.'s Josesito Lopez much of a chance to overturn the already set table of his June 23 opponent Victor Ortiz at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in the Showtime Championship Boxing main event.

Among those is Ortiz's promoter Golden Boy Promotions, who has a tentative date set in September for Ortiz to move up to junior middleweight and take on one of boxing's few box-office beaus Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a pay-per-view attraction set for the weekend of Mexican Independence Day.

This isn't the first time Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) has been setup to win at the Staples Center. Almost three years to the day, featherweights Chris John and Rocky Juarez were set to rematch atop a bill that featured Ortiz against the largely unknown Marcos Maidana in the co-feature. John-Juarez II fell out and Ortiz found himself headlining at perhaps the biggest venue in California. Ortiz was being hailed as one of the sport's future stars by all the important outlets.

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Jose Miguel Aguiniga Takes Two

Jose Miguel Aguiniga Takes Two
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
February 1, 2012

The early aughts saw champions-in-the-making Victor Ortiz, Steven Luevano, and Brandon Rios all begin their ascent up the pro ranks, yet it was fellow southern Californian Jose Miguel Aguiniga who many experts predicted would first reach the peak. In boxing, a fighter is not always the sum of his physical parts. Such was the case of Aguiniga.

 Though he ran his record to an impressive 31-0, Aguiniga never managed to earn notoriety, nor a lucrative bout before deciding to step away from boxing in 2007. Now returning to the ring for the first time in five years as he fights veteran gatekeeper Juan Ruiz on Feb. 25 in Port Hueneme, California, Aguiniga is hoping to revise his story from a cautionary tale to an inspirational one.

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Santana set to prove he's no stepping stone

Santana set to prove he's no stepping stone
Mark E. Ortega
Leave-it-in-the-ring.com
October 5, 2011

It wasn't long ago that Santa Barbara, California's Francisco Santana was entering fights as the touted prospect with high expectations. Friday night, he'll step into the ring as the projected stepping stone for undefeated Jermell Charlo of Austin, Texas in the televised opener of ShoBox: The New Generation, a position Santana has found himself in a few times as of late.

After turning pro under the Goossen-Tutor Promotions banner in November of 2005, Santana was being groomed for big things.

“I was supposed to make my pro debut near my home at Chumash with Gary Shaw but the fight fell through,” Santana told Leave It In The Ring in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Arrellano: "Opportunity of a lifetime"

Ortiz Manager Arrellano: “Opportunity of a lifetime”

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

June 7, 2011

With the official announcement that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. will be stepping out of a 14 month bout of inactivity to take on reigning WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz on September 17^th, I caught up with Ortiz manager Rolando Arrellano this morning to discuss the fight.

“We agreed to any and all conditions,” stated an elated Arrellano over the phone. “This is Floyd's promotion, he is the man, he has earned his position. We didn't care too much about the gloves, the location, just tell us where and when to show up, it's an opportunity of a lifetime.”

From marinated to overcooked: Lopez-Gamboa, Kirkland-Angulo, & Ortiz-Berto

From marinated to overcooked? Lopez-Gamboa, Kirkland-Angulo, & Ortiz-Berto

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

April 18, 2011

In this midweek piece, Leave-it-in-the-ring's Mark Ortega discusses the overcooked bout between Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa that fell to shambles following Lopez' shock loss to Orlando Salido this weekend, and why promoters should put their fighters in tough more often as was the case with Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz the same night, where the loser gained just as much in defeat as he had in winning his first 27 pro fights. As was the case with Tua-Ibeabuchi in '97, no career will be derailed from the great welterweight bout between Berto-Ortiz.

The month of April has already seen its fair share of upsets in big time bouts as well as the vanquishing of quite a few future paydays for many fighters on the losing end of them.

Morales a source of dependency for boxing

Morales provides boxing a source of dependency

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

April 12, 2011

It was a fight that, once over, rendered the official verdict meaningless if you were fortunate enough to catch the action and see it for what it was. Sure, ten years down the line, someone who may not know any better might check out Boxrec, see “Marcos Maidana MD12 Erik Morales,” and think nothing of it, but to those lucky enough to count themselves as one of the more than 7,000 in attendance or one of the few hundred thousand that tuned in live, it was an epic night in the storied career of one of boxing's great warriors.

It's entirely possible that Marcos Maidana may never reach the elite level of the sport, but that won't diminish what Morales was able to do against him at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas this past weekend.

Kirkland-Angulo: As hot as it is going to get?

Kirkland-Angulo: As hot as it is going to get?
Mark E. Ortega
Freelance
March 12, 2009


Also eight other matchups and whether they would come off better now or later

There are fights out there that quickly grasp the attention of the boxing public, sometimes a bit too early in time for it to be a realistic possibility based on where in their careers those two fighters are. That is one of the many things that make our sport intriguing, it is all in the timing. It isn’t like football or baseball, where they play basically the same set schedule with a few differences here and there. In boxing, you never can guess where you will be eight months from now; let alone two to five years from now.

With that said, in boxing, many times a fight will start building up heat and excitement even if it doesn’t make sense at that exact moment for that fight to come off. Promoters are always trying to build a fight up so much until both guys are at similar stages in their career, near their projected primes, so that it makes the most money. A lot of times, this has worked and many fights have come together that took years of build-up to produce. It seems that fights like Hagler-Hearns and Tyson-Holyfield, despite their numerous setbacks, were always meant to come together the way they did, and it served the winners in both of those fights much better based on the timing.

Kirkland takes Julio’s heart, title of biggest puncher at 154

Kirkland takes Julio’s heart, title of biggest puncher at 154
Mark E. Ortega
Freelance
March 8, 2009


In an exceptionally well-matched card on paper, Golden Boy Promotions presented three equally intriguing bouts featuring some of their hottest young stars and seemingly had a can’t miss card. Unfortunately, anything can happen in the sport of boxing, and that includes three high-profile bouts being less than expected for reasons that were uncontrollable. The HP Pavilion lured HBO into their town of San Jose, California with a mission to prove that the city is a fight fan city, and the hometown crowd was successful in that mission as 6,765 people were reported in attendance. On this night, however, quite a few instances occurred that took some of the air out of the tires that was the three televised bouts.