LAS VEGAS – Victor Ortiz made it clear after a press convention Thursday that he by no means retired from boxing.
The former WBC welterweight champion will finish a 3½-year layoff Saturday evening, however Ortiz insists he knew all alongside that he would return to the ring. The 34-year-old Ortiz will lastly struggle once more when he encounters Robert Guerrero within the 10-round co-feature on the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas undercard at T-Mobile Arena.
“The media, you retired me, as a result of perhaps my smile, perhaps my cockiness, perhaps my combating type,” Ortiz informed a small group of reporters at MGM Grand Garden Arena. “I don’t know. Whatever it was, individuals retired me. I by no means left. I used to be going by means of some troubles of my very own, took care of every part and we’re again for the last decade.”
Ortiz’s layoff lasted so lengthy largely attributable to his arrest on three felony fees associated to an alleged sexual assault in September 2018. Ortiz has lengthy denied the allegations and spent greater than two years combating the case in court docket.
Those fees had been dropped in mid-December, which enabled Ortiz to renew a star-crossed profession that started in June 2004.
In the 38-year-old Guerrero, Ortiz will face a fellow southpaw from California, one other former WBC 147-pound champion who has misplaced to Floyd Mayweather. Guerrero (36-6-1, 20 KOs) has gained three straight fights throughout his comeback from a brutal, third-round, technical-knockout defeat to then-unbeaten Omar Figueroa Jr. in July 2017.
“He involves struggle, he comes with the stress, with the boxing, it don’t matter,” Ortiz mentioned. “I do know what I’ve carried out in coaching camp. I do know I obeyed my camp one hundred percent. I used to be in mattress at appropriate instances, I used to be weight-reduction plan accurately, I used to be working once I was imagined to. I listened, so I’m prepared.”
Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs), who was educated for this bout by Freddie Roach, got here in a single pound above the contracted restrict of 147 kilos Friday. He paid Guerrero cash out of his purse for not making weight.
The Ventura, California, native will struggle for the primary time since his doubtful draw with Devon Alexander in February 2018.
Alexander appeared to do greater than sufficient to out-point Ortiz, however not one of the three judges scored their 12-round, 147-pound bout for Alexander on the University of Texas-El Paso’s Don Haskins Center.
Judge Don Griffin scored the struggle for Ortiz, 115-113. The two different judges, Glen Rick Crocker and Levi Martinez, had it even after 12 rounds (114-114).
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He may be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.