“Vicious” Victor Ortiz, who walked into the ring accompanied by a remix of the recently fallen King of Pop Michael Jackson’s biggest hit “Thriller” could not live up to the song but his opponent Marcos Maidana of Argentina did as he stopped Ortiz with a sixth round TKO to walk away with the vacant intertim WBA jr. wleterweight title in front of over 8,000 shocked Ortiz fans Saturday night at the Staples Center in the heart of Los Angeles and televised on HBO’s “Boxing After Dark”.
In what was a tentative first half of the first round, the rest of the stanza became explosive as Ortiz dropped Maidana with a right hook mid way thru the round. Maidana not only beat the count but 
seconds later landed a hard right hand that sent Ortiz down to the canvas. Ortiz beat the count but looked worse for wear as he tied up Maidana to stay afloat. Both fighters exchanged heavy letter until the end of the round.
The second began in similar fashion as Maidano showed no respect for the hometown favorite as he landed hard power punches to Ortiz’s face stunning the southpaw mid way thru the round. Ortiz was not deterred as he pressured the Argentinean towards the ropes and landed another devastating right hook that send Maidana to the canvas again. This time Maidana felt the effects of the punch much more as he stood up and then immediately took a knee but beating the count. Ortiz went on a rampage of punches in trying to finish his opponent off and succeeded by connecting with a left hook that once again dropped Maidana. To the dismay of many, the tough South American beat the count once again and retreated to his corner once the bell rang to end the round.
Both fighters began to box in the third but the power punches still made an appearance in the fight and on the faces of both warriors. Maidana landed another right that shook Ortiz’s legs once again. Ortiz continued to set the pace as he pressured Maidana around the ring landing the straight left and hooks to the body while the Argentinean counter punched with his own set of over hand rights.
Maidana had his best round of the bout so far in the fifth as he survived an early flurry from Ortiz to land a succession of right hands that snapped the head back of Ortiz and create a cut over the right eye of Ortiz.
Maidana’s attack continued to start the sixth as he welcomed Ortiz to the round with a head snapping right hand once again which hurt the 22-year-old. Maidana saw and smelled blood as he continued to attack his hurt rival and trapped up against one of the neutral corner and landed a hard right hand followed by a left hook to the body that dropped Ortiz to the canvas. As Ortiz beat the count, he was waived over to the ropes to have his cut checked by the attending physician who decided to waive off the bout.
Official time was :46 of the sixth round. Photos by Ed Mulholland/HBO
Scotland’s Craig McEwan (16-0, 9KO) earned a tough split decision over Darnell Boone (16-11-2, 6KO) of Youngstown, OH, in the eight round main event.
For the first half of the bout, Boone was elusive when he was not being wild with his attack. McEwan seemed out of his element most of the time as he was not able to decipher Boone’s style as awkward as it was. Although trained by Freddie Roach, the southpaw McEwan seemed to be lacking some weapons in his arsenal as he continued to plunder forward with a one-two combinations that seemed to land more than it didn’t but with not enough power to make a difference.
Boone began to get busier in the second half of the bout, landing two and three punch combinations as McEwan did not change his strategy in the least. McEwan did have success in trapping Boone against the ropes or corners and once he was sure that Boone was not going to slide away, he proceeded to take a step back and throw power punches to both the head and body of Boone. mid way thru the eight round, Boone landed two quick right hands that snapped McEwan’s head back as the crowd displayed their approval. McEwan began to bleed from his left eye near the end of the bout as both fighters made it to the end of the bout.
Judge Raul Caiz Jr saw it 77-75 for Boone while judges Fritz Warner saw it for McEwan with the same score. The deciding judge was James Jen-Kin who saw it a lopsided 79-73 for McEwan.
In an entertaining four round fight between two young lightweights, Newark, NJ’s Mike Perez earned a unanimous decision over Thomas Herrera of Tucson, AZ, with quicker hands and more solid shots. Official scores were 40-36 twice and 39-37.
Perez stays undefeated with a record of 3-0-1, 2KO while Herrera drops to an even 2-2-1.
In what seemed like it would be a tough night for up and coming lightweight Adrien Broner of Cincinnati, OH, ended up being a walk in the park as he dropped William Kickett of Perth, Australia twice en route to a 6th round KO.
as Kickett (15-2, 5KO) looked game to be a durable opponent for the undefeated Broner (10-0, 7KO) as he moved around the ring swiftly landing counter over right hands in the first half of the bout, Broner turned out to be to quick and smarter as he turned the tables on the man from down under as he began to counter the one-two combination from his opponent. Near the end of the fourth round, Broner did just that as he landed a hard left hook to the exposed chin of Kickett sending him crashing down to the canvas. Kickett barely beat the count seconds before the bell rang ending the round.
The bout continued it similar fashion as Kickett forced the action trying to reveal a chink in Broner’s armor but to no avail. As the sixth round neared its end, Broner was able to push Kickett against the ropes and as the Australian tried to defend himself, Broner landed a quick and deadly left uppercut in between Kickett’s arms that sent him down to the canvas. Referee Cobian began his count but as he looked into Kickett’s eyes, the experienced referee decided to waive the bout off.
Official time was 2:58 of the sixth round of a scheduled sixth round..
In a four round jr. middleweight bout that went four rounds too many, Sergio De La Torre (11-11-3, 1KO) of Escondido, CA, and Los Mochis, MX’s Jaime Orrantia (11-23-5, 3KO) threw unbalanced and unskilled punches at each other to deem the fight a majority draw. While two judges saw it identical with scores of 38-38, one judge scored it 39-37 for De La Torre.
That was a great slug fest. But I feel that both fighters needed to relaxes.
Ortiz was doing so fine until those rights hands of Marcos Maidana came into effect.
As i mentioned earlier again up on here that Ortiz needed too finish Maidana earlier in the fight, the later rounds is where he is going to be in trouble. As much as I was routing for Victor, knew that Marcos Maidana would have given Ortiz problems and probably beat him for sure.
Maidana got away with a win, as careless he was in the fight. In the future he better move his head next time, because a skilled fighter would take full advantage of that.
As For victor Ortiz, he needs too earn my respect again.
Learn too be more patient and listen to his corner man and show more balls and heart, show that you want too continue and don’t let the doctors stop the fight. It was what he said after the fight that was really disappointing, too me. “”He said that he is not going to lay on his back for nobody, might as well stop while Im ahead “””
What in the hell are you doing in the ring buddy….LOL You have two belts, what kind of champion say things like that…are we serious…..LOL
Going to have too scratch him off that list, very disappointing…..
He needs to earn some people respect back.
It would have been better for him too loose and say that h
Ortiz should bounce back fine if he works hard and listens to his corner. He gets hit with too many rights and he sure did quit though. One thing, really tired of Golden Boy shoving guys down our throats who have not shown they are world class yet.
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