One journey has been stranger than the other but both of these men will look to get back to where they once were only some years ago. Former champions “Vicious” Victor Ortiz and Abner Mares are scheduled to be part of what looks to be the last Golden Boy Promotions card of the year on Saturday, December 13th, at the Mandalay Bay and broadcast live on Showtime. As of now Ortiz and Mares, who are set to face the ever dangerous TBA, are not set to be on the televised portion of the card.
Ortiz has lost his last three in a row. His last win was way back in 2011 in a fight of the year candidate against Andre Berto. Since then he has been stopped thrice by Floyd Mayweather Jr, Josesito Lopez and in his last fight last January by Luis Collazo in two rounds. Ortiz has not waited idly by for his next opportunity. Since his last fight, he starred in the movie The Expendables 3 and while he recuperated from a broken jaw suffered against Josesito Lopez, he participated in the sixteenth season of Dancing with the Stars in 2013.
Many fight fans and media experts believe that after his Hollywood extra-curricular activities Ortiz simply just doesn’t have the hunger for boxing anymore. In the kick-off press conference held this week in Los Angeles to announce the Amir Khan vs Devon Alexander main event, Ortiz told the press that he was back with a vengeance and would look to face all the fighters who defeated him starting with Marcos Maidana followed by Josesito Lopez then Mayweather Jr and last but not least Luis Collazo.
Abner Mares has not been away from the ring as long as Ortiz but he’s had a roller coaster nearly last fifteen months. The spiral began back in August of 2013 when Mares, previously undefeated and a three divisional champion up to that point, was ceremoniously knocked out in the first round by Mexico City’s Jhonny Gonzalez for the WBC featherweight title. Gonzalez was supposed to be a keep busy fight for a much more lucrative and higher profile fight against stable mate Leo Santa Cruz. Soon after the loss Mares yelled from the rooftops that he wanted a rematch with Gonzalez but Mares seemed to be more interested in getting out of his contract with long-time manager Frank Espinoza. So much so that it is reported that he paid a good amount of money to do just that. Mares then signed with whom else? Al Haymon.
Mares also left trainer Clemente Maidana for Virgil Hunter and came back nearly a year later in July of this year with a run-of-the-mill unanimous decision over Puerto Rican Jonathan Oquendo. After the backlash due to his performance in that fight, Mares quickly went back to Medina.
Both fighters are announcing big plans for 2015 with Mares also claiming he would look for a rematch against Gonzalez. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and first let’s get opponents for December.
