Boxing is a beautiful sport because one punch can end it all. One mistake from a fighter may cost him the match. Andre Berto and Juan Manuel Lopez should have won their fights. Both fighters were undefeated and both stood at their primes. Berto had 27 wins in as many fights. Lopez was 30 for 30. Both looked extremely well in their last fights so nobody expected them to lose.
Against Berto was Victor Ortiz, a fighter going up in weight to challenge for the title. Ortiz has been labeled as a quitter after he pulled a “no mas" against Marcos Maidana.
“I’ve always thought that Victor would be better in the welterweight division," Freddie Roach told Underdog Boxing.
“I think his body fills up better at 147, making him much stronger." He told me this could be a good fight. I nodded my head thinking that Ortiz will compete in the first few rounds then lose steam in the end.
Lopez was being primed for a mouth-watering fight against Yuri Gamboa and Orlando Salido was hired to keep him busy, to make him look good in preparation for his big fight. Salido had 11 losses in his career and he had been stopped five times.
Ortiz came out firing, exposing Berto as a protected fighter who does not know how to deal with opponents who actually fight back. Ortiz owned the fight en route to a unanimous decision victory.
The first lesson I learned from this fight is to always believe Roach. The man knows his boxing. The second is that fighters mature in different rates. The boxing world was ready to brand Ortiz as nothing more than a class B fighter but he buckled down to business and shocked the world.
Lopez on the other hand came off flat. It looked like he didn’t prepare at all for the fight as he looked gassed after the first few rounds. Salido connected with a right hand wallop in the fifth round and finished the job in the eighth round. Sure, the stoppage looked premature but there was no way Lopez could have won that fight.
The recent upset bug should inspire Shane Mosley for his upcoming fight against Manny Pacquiao. He is the definitive underdog with only a handful outside his team giving him a shot at defeating Pacquiao. Mosley has the power to hurt Pacquiao and he also has the speed to connect with his punches. He should console himself with the fact that two fighters who weren’t supposed to win actually did.
Mosley does not need the world to believe he can defeat Pacquiao. He only needs to believe in himself. Yes, it is an incredibly tough task to beat the best fighter in the world, especially now that Pacquiao has been training without the distractions of the past.
But when two men lock horns for 12 rounds, anything can happen. At the top of the ring, odds do not matter. This is the beauty of boxing.
Carlo Pamintuan, GMA News TV