A Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Victor Ortiz Primer for the MMA Fan

Some may call it sacrilege, but I am more interested in tonight's boxing affair between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz than the UFC's offering on Spike TV. Maybe you are, too. Or maybe you're curious about the boxing, but don't know much about either participant. We have you covered.

First, for comprehensive coverage and round-by-round updates, I highly recommend checking out Scott Christ over at Bad Left Hook. If Scott covered MMA, he would be the most valuable asset on SBN. The dude just does the damn thing. We'll have a live discussion post here at Bloody Elbow, but do yourself a favor and give Bad Left Hook a look tonight. 

Here's Scott's prediction for the fight:

I don't have much to add with this one, really. It's a Floyd Mayweather Jr fight -- chances are, he waltzes through and gets a one-sided decision. Ortiz will be dangerous early, but his only chance is a puncher's chance. He has to catch Floyd, and then follow up. He has to knock him out. He cannot outbox him, cannot beat him on points. He really just can't do it. He's not good enough.

The only concern I have here is that Mayweather, as noted before, has to "get old" at some point. It can come one of two ways: A fight he survives that is harder than expected, and thus he retires, or a fight he doesn't survive, where everything creeps up on him and gets him beaten. I don't see it happening here, and frankly I don't think Ortiz makes it all the way to the finish line either. I'm guessing he doesn't come off his stool after nine rounds, all of which will be Mayweather's on the scorecard. As Floyd picks up steam, his straight right will continue to batter Ortiz, and eventually, it will be into submission. Mayweather RTD-9

Bloody Elbow's Brent Brookhouse offers his summation of the fight over at MMA Nation:

It isn't going to take long to see how the fight will play out. If Ortiz can't find success in the first two or three rounds, he isn't likely to find it at any point, barring clipping Floyd as the fight wears on. Victor has to make a decision immediately after the opening bell. Will he headhunt and try to hurt and finish Floyd before he can get rid of the ring rust and find his rhythm? Or will he go old school and work the body to sap the speed and open up the head as the rounds wear on?

Mayweather needs to not get caught up in a shootout, it's not his style so there isn't a huge risk of seeing it happen. If he can counter Victor effectively in the opening rounds, it will likely make Ortiz reluctant to fire the power punches and allow Floyd to dictate a comfortable rhythm.

Ortiz will also likely need to accept some punches to open up his offense. If at any point in the fight he is going backward and isn't the attacking fighter, he is losing. It comes down to pressuring Floyd and fighting like the younger man. If he can keep Mayweather from getting comfortable he might be able to make him fight like the "old man" Victor claims he is.

Carlos Acevedo of the fantastic The Cruelest Sport outlines the uphill battle that Ortiz faces:

Over the last few months, Ortiz, 29-2-2 (22), has revealed himself as one of the new eccentrics of boxing. Obsessed by Harry Potter, a competitor in triathlons, and with a seething contempt for the media, Ortiz has appeared audaciously confident since the pre-fight buildup against Berto. He carried that self-assurance into the ring against "The Human Bermuda Triangle of Boxing" as well. Revved up in his own corner before the sound of the opening bell, Ortiz charged after Berto and promptly hammered his fellow enigma into the canvas. In a battle of boxing chimeras, Ortiz came out on top, drubbing Berto for 9 out of 12 rounds, and emerging with a UNICEF welterweight title and an instant reputation.

Still, it is hard to gloss over the fact that Ortiz, 24, has accomplished all that he has accomplished in his career over the course of 36 minutes with Berto. After all, two fights ago, Ortiz struggled to a draw with middling Lamont Peterson, and his post-Maidana form seemed skittish at best. Simply put, Victor Ortiz has done nothing to suggest that he belongs in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. The only way, it seems, for Ortiz to derail the Money Train is to hope that inactivity has coated its wheels, axles, and brake shoes with enough rust to slow it down enough for Ortiz to handle. Ortiz does, however, enter the fight with a few advantages over Mayweather: he is bigger, younger, hits harder, and, perhaps most troublesome of all for Mayweather, he is a southpaw.

And if visuals are more your thing, I've embedded some video after the jump.