Josesito Lopez makes Ortiz quit

Josesito Lopez just ruined Golden Boy’s plans for September 15th. In a war, Lopez made Victor Ortiz quit on his stool after suffering a broken jaw in the 9th in a schedueled 12 rounder in Los Angeles last night. Victor Ortiz was just supposed to be having a tuneup fight before his fight with Saul Canelo Alvarez on mexican independence day but ended up losing not only both fights but maybe his reputation as a real mexican warrior. Josesito Lopez has been screaming for the last week that the upset was being cooked even making some shirts that read “it smells like an upset”.

There was no denying this young man from riverside as he went through life and death with Ortiz in a fast paced power shot fight that was as grueling and entertaining as you’ll ever see. This is the beauty of boxing, you get a bad decision here and there that make you doubt your alliegence to the sport but then suddenly out of nowhere a fight like this turns out and brings your faith back to the sport. 2012 has been a pretty bad year for the world of boxing as se’ve had many fights canceled for the wrong reasons. A couple of the big fights were postponed because of injuries and others have been tarnished because of one of the participants tested positive for PED’s.

Lamont Peterson, Andre Berto and now respected veteran Antonio Tarver have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. This, combined with robbery that we witnessed three weeks ago in Las Vegas when Timothy Bradley “beat” Manny Pacquiao, have given more black eyes to the sport that it can handle. Another one was brewing the last couple of weeks when rival promotional companies were planning on staging two of the fight game’s biggest young stars, mexicans, Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on separate cards just across the block in the city of Las Vegas the same day.

September 16th is Mexican Independence day and one of the two biggest dates in boxing every year. Don King made this a tradition when he lost Mike Tyson to jail time a good 20 years ago. He had to introduce another attraction to his arsenal making Julio Cesar Chavez Sr’s fights a new tradition this date. Oscar De La Hoya took over and after years and years of fights it extended itself to any popular fighter available. Its a coveted date in boxing and for the first time, rivals Top Rank and Golden Boy wanted to ruin it for us, a small niche fan base that probably can’t afford to pay for two pay per view fights the same night.

Fortunately we don’t have to worry about this anymore as Josesito Lopez just ended the debate for the decision that was to be made come fight night. Chavez Jr is facing the touest fighter any middleweight ca fight in Sergio Martinez, at worst the third best fighter poound for pound in the world, while Canelo is now facing the dreaded TBA (to be announced) as three dance partners have faded away for different reasons. There are a couple of fighters being considered and a pay per view hit in Miguel Cotto, but none of them seem to demand as much intrigue as the fight between Chavez and Martinez.

The future of Josesito looks bright, a rematch with Ortiz seems like a natural or a fight against another winner in the card, argentinian Lucas Mathysse, who knocked out rugged contender Humberto Soto in the six round, would also produce fireworks. Can’t wait to see what the future of this young fighter holds. As for Victor Ortiz, the first thing is recover from this injury, but the hardest part will Be the recovery from the critizism he will receive for quitting. Muhammad Ali, Pernell Whitaker and Arthur Abraham are the first fighters to come to my mind that resisted thepain of a broken jaw for a whole fight; that’s the real difference between true greats and pretenders. For the rest of the boxing world, it may have shifted Septembers plans a little bit, or maybe it just made things better for all of us.