Jamaine Ortiz has slept on it, twice, and is still of the belief that he deserved to have his hand raised in Vegas after going 12 rounds with Teofimo Lopez, the Takeover Showman, on ESPN.
Let’s get this out of the way right away, I don’t see it like Ortiz does. “I was in control – this was a one-sided fight”, the 17-2-1, 8 KOs New Englander told Mariano Agmi, for a release put forth by Ortiz’ promoter Jimmy Burchfield Sr from CES Boxing.
As I watched on Thursday, I felt many of the same emotions as you all, but I leaned away from what the ESPN crew, which includes an increasingly erratic Tim Bradley, and was in concurrence basically with Steve Weisfeld. He’s quite likely the best boxing judge living, and he scored it for Teofimo Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs), who it must be said, had an off night.
“It was a masterful performance,” said Burchfield, Sr. in the release. “He outboxed (Teofimo) Lopez from the beginning. Jamaine (Ortiz) outshined the showman in his hometown and then he was robbed of the decision. It’s shame when a fighter loses a decision like that after putting on such a boxing clinic. As far as I’m concerned, we beat Teofimo Lopez and we’re ready to challenge the other champions in the division.”
Bless Jimmy’s immense soul, he’s properly prosecuting on behalf of his guy.
“I stuck to the gameplan,” said Ortiz moments after the decision. “He couldn’t hit me. I was making him miss all night. I was keeping him at bay with the jab, I was countering with the check hook. He wasn’t landing any shots on me.”
CompuBox confirmed what your eyes told you, that there was not much landing of shots, or throwing. That was on Ortiz, who moved, out of that southpaw stance that Teofimo couldn’t solve. Great athleticism and usage of movement to dictate pace and tone, yes! But doing what needed to be done to win? Nossir, Weisfeld is being dissed on social media by people who are not very clued in on how perception can shift and cement quite quickly in this age of social media prominence.
“Like I said the whole week, he gets frustrated,” said Ortiz of his opponent’s temperament. “He can’t control himself. I know how to control myself and I knew he couldn’t. That was the game plan: get him frustrated and make him lose control. He was throwing wild, I was making him miss, it was part of the game plan and it worked.”
Not if the intention was to win, though. I’m being a bit facetious, but seriously. You don’t have to be a wizened OG to know that in general, the “B side” comes to the arena two points down. In England, it’s three or four.
And that’s not to hint of corruption, although that exists, duh. It’s human nature to have prominent revenue generators get the benefits of doubts inside and outside of boxing rings. Lopez was touted as on the cusp of (2024 level) super stardom. Kid gets better endorsement offers than anyone in the game today. I don’t know if that all was communicated to Ortiz, but the argument is compelling that dynamic must be part of forming a game plan on how to WIN a fight.
“I believe I won the fight,” said Ortiz to a group of reporters afterwards. “I got him out of his gameplan. He was frustrated and I was in control. He was missing wildly, and I was countering him. What can I say? It’s politics as usual.”
Is it “politics” or more so a crude reality of life? Ortiz has backers, though it should be noted that Terence Crawford sees Teofimo as one of his three best options for next fight, so his agenda must be cited.
“People gotta understand the game is called ‘BOXING’ and not ‘FIGHTING’,” wrote undisputed welterweight champion Terrence Crawford on X. “Hit and not get hit. But I guess y’all don’t know what that means, because when y’all see a fighter boxing the first thing y’all say is he’s running.”
People gotta understand the game is called “BOXING”and not “FIGHTING”!!!Hit and not get hit. But I guess a lot of yall don’t know what that means, because when yall see a fighter boxing the first thing yall say is he running.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) February 9, 2024
“I came up on the short end of the stick once again,” lamented Ortiz. “Obviously we’ll go back to the drawing board, make some adjustments, and come back for another title shot. The fans know what happened. The media knows, my team knows. The whole world probably saw it my way, but the decision is already made. Boxrec and history will say that he won, but hopefully we get a rematch and I’ll make it more of a clear decision next time around.”
Speaking of OGs, I’m leaving some last words to boxing’s ultimate, Bob Arum. Yes, he had a dog in the hunt, two actually, because Top Rank has rights along with CES to Ortiz.
Listen to Bob, Jamaine, listen to voices who aren’t part of your choir.
You will be better served to get to acceptance mode as to why your hand wasn’t raised and move closer to this certainty: your best chance to win is to stop your foe, or do your level best, so the judges are rendered irrelevant. You might look back and realize you were capable of doing more, offensively, than you gave yourself credit for.
Sum up time: It wasn’t a robbery, and Steve Weisfeld is a pro’s pro, the collective hubris out there is concerning, trainers have to craft game plans factoring in real life factors of human nature. And Teofimo needs extra tutoring on cutting off the ring.
Yeah, we all have room for improvement, all the time and we can all have a better chance at being/doing better if we traffic in reality.
Truth, it’s hard to find if you are sub consciously avoiding it. It’s usually cold, often painful I find getting out of my cocoon of self soothing and considering possibilities and narratives counter to my self interest and self image preservation. Reality, it often bites. Reality here: it wasn’t a robbery, Ortiz didn’t get screwed Thursday, he fought a technically adept but strategically poor fight against an ace, and made a case for deserving a W.
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