Sound and Fury: Strange Notes on a Strange Weekend

Marcos Maidana KO6 Victor Ortiz

Apparently lost in the shock of seeing Victor Ortiz crash and burn at the Staples Arena last night were the strange actions of referee Raul Caiz, Sr. Whatever his reasoning, if, indeed, reasoning was at all involved, Raul Caiz, Sr., basically refused to let Ortiz quit against Marcos Maidana. Ortiz came out of his corner to start the sixth round drained of ambition and was promptly hammered to the canvas by Maidana for a knockdown. Halfway through the count, Ortiz clearly indicated that he no longer wanted to continue, but Caiz, Sr., instead of waving the fight off immediately, actually stopped counting somewhere in the neighborhood of “5 ¾” and called in the ringside doctor to look at a nasty cut Ortiz had suffered in the previous round.

Now, what on earth would have happened if the doctor had ruled that the cut was manageable and that Ortiz could go on? Questions in boxing are often terrifying; answers, when they arise, exponentially so. Luckily for Caiz, Sr., everything worked out as planned and he was able to perpetuate the fiction that Ortiz was stopped on cuts. But the harsh truth–the only kind to be found in boxing–is that Victor Ortiz quit. He admitted as much to Max Kellerman after the bout, saying, “I’m not gonna go out on my back, I’m not going to lay down for nobody, you know. I’d rather just, hey, you know, I’m gonna stop while I’m ahead and that way I can speak well when I’m older, you know.”

****

Perhaps Caiz, Sr., felt that Ortiz, as the hometown fighter with serious corporate backing, was entitled to a little abracadabra. Even so, with this flabbergasting move, Caiz, Sr., officially enters the Bermuda Triangle of referees, joining Frank Santore, Jr., (who counted Kermit Cintron out against Sergio Martinez and then changed his mind) and Marlon Wright (who seemed determined to play out his own fantasy version of Tunney-Dempsey II during the Lucian Bute-Librado Andrade fight in Montreal). Unfortunately, Santore, Jr., and Wright were back in the ring for televised fights only weeks later, and Caiz, Sr., who apparently belongs to the same powerful union, will soon follow suit.

****

Almost as instantaneously as Ortiz combusted in the ring, Golden Boy honchos Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer jumped into the spin-doctoring booth, pumping out disinformation with all the panache of Kim Jong-Il. It was the doctor who stopped the fight, Ortiz was ready to go on, Ortiz was half blind, Ortiz was ahead on the scorecards, etc.

Never mind the fact that Ortiz was seen by tens of thousands live on HBO turning away from referee Raul Caiz, Sr., and shaking his head “no.” Caiz, Sr., foreshadowed the Golden Boy propaganda strategy by pretending that Ortiz was stopped by a cut. To his credit, only Max Kellerman appeared unwilling to play along with this charade.

****

Even before he was dropped in the sixth round, Ortiz was thinking about being somewhere else, perhaps home playing “Fight Night Round 4,” where the competition is a little less fierce. He was unresponsive on the stool after the fifth and had the look of a man who had just been released from a whirligig.

****

There is nothing wrong with losing, especially in a riveting fight, but because one fighter was overhyped to the point of nausea (and at the expense of his opponent) it is harder to overcome the stigma of defeat. If HBO would just pit quality Opponent A against quality Opponent B and let them go at it without obviously playing favorites, then marketable fighters will be produced in no time and with less of an advertising budget. And if the fight is as much of a barnburner as Maidana-Ortiz, then there is the possibility that two marketable fighters will emerge.

****

For Ortiz, whose name over the last year could not be mentioned without the word “Superstar” attached to it, the concept of a rebuilding process is silly–there is nothing to rebuild. He is a young fighter with less than 30 pro bouts and whose only significant win was against fringe contender Mike Arnoutis. “Rebuild” is most likely a euphemism for “recoup,” as in recouping the time, effort, and money spent to market a young fighter who was prematurely anointed the savior of boxing. Still, Ortiz is an exciting fighter, and he will have an opportunity to live down his surrender in the future.

****

Interestingly enough, HBO never replayed the strange count on their telecast. When Frank Santore, Jr., botched the Sergio Martinez-Kermit Cintron fight last February, HBO repeated the knockdown as if it were the Zapruder film. Conspiracy theorists should take note.

****

Vanes Martirosyan KO6 Andrey Tsurkan

Never has a fighter “bobbed and weaved” into so many punches as Andrey Tsurkan did last night against Vanes Martirosyan. He threw himself in front of jabs, right crosses, left hooks, and uppercuts the way the truly devoted supposedly hurled themselves before the Juggernaut. Tsurkan, so slow that his bob sometimes gets ahead of his weave–or is it vice versa?–is as tough as they come, but he should seriously think about a new line of work. The back-to-back beatings he took from Alfredo Angulo and Vanes Martirosyan were grim, to say the least, and Tsurkan, at 31, will not get any better. He has now lost three of his last four fights and has the unenviable distinction of practically making Jim Lampley weep during a bout.

****

Juan Manuel Lopez KO9 Olivier Lontchi

Juan Manuel Lopez, who looked a little sluggish knocking out anonymous Canadian Olivier Lontchi, in Atlantic City, has developed a strange tic in the ring that almost, but not quite, had me reaching for my dog-eared copy of the DSM-IV. For some reason, Lopez kept banging his left hand against the beltline of his trunks throughout the bout. In fact, Lopez might have hit himself more often than Lontchi did. Whether or not this new peculiarity qualifies as a mild form of OCD is open to speculation, but a world-class opponent will most certainly find a way to exploit it. We will find out the day Lopez enters the ring with one.

****

Arthur Abraham KO10 Mahir Oral

Readers who spreken zie Deutsch might want to check out the website for the German Boxing Association and review some of their regulations. At one point, there appeared to be six or seven people, enough for a stud poker game, in the corner of beleaguered Mahir Oral between rounds during his drubbing at the hands of Arthur Abraham. In America, that would certainly qualify as too many men on the field.

****

How is it possible that Abraham has not only been unable to land a fight with Kelly Pavlik, but he cannot even get any of the top three middleweights in Germany to swap punches with him? Felix Sturm, a paper champion if there ever was one, has no interest in getting on the Autobahn to meet Abraham; Sebastian Sylvester lost a wide decision to Sturm last year; and Sebastian Zibk, somehow, is scheduled to fight for the WBC “interim” middleweight title despite the fact that Kelly Pavlik is allegedly the WBC “regular” champion. If Zibk defeats Italian Dominico Spada in two weeks, it will mean that Germany will have three middleweight “world” champions simultaneously. This is not a typo.

****