Victor Ortiz Shocked by Tough Marcos Rena Maidana

(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

There are few things in sports that can hijack your undivided attention more quickly or easily than drama inside a boxing ring. It is exhilarating, captivating, and causes one's blood to rush.

The announcers' voice heightens, the crowd rises to its feet and fills the arena with the swelled noise of excitement, and your heart begins to beat with anticipation.

To me, the best of these moments occur when one man possesses the momentum and has his opponent in trouble, and it appears that a fight is nearing its final stages—when it looks like the referee could step in at any second to save a fighter from further abuse (Pacquiao-De la Hoya), when it looks like someone might not survive an early round (Pacquiao-Hatton), whenever a fighter senses he has his man and goes in for the kill (Mosley-Margarito), etc.

These scenarios can come in a variety of ways. Another way to get me hooked? When two guys exchange knockdowns within mere seconds of each other.

That's what happened during the first round of the Victor Ortiz-Marcos Rena Maidana clash that aired on HBO from the Staples Center on Saturday night.

I missed the initial broadcast and figured I would watch the second showing half-heartedly, at the same time I was resuming construction of my more than year long ongoing drawing of Anton Chigurh.

The first knockdown, a hard right hand by Ortiz that dropped Maidana along the ropes, caught the majority of my attention, and may have caused me to lose grip of my pencil.

The ensuing knockdown, a vicious straight right by Maidana delivered immediately following his taking of the mandatory eight count left me, as a fan, no choice but to close the cover of my 18"x24" sketchbook, put it in its resting place and take in the fireworks.

There were more explosions in the second round. Ortiz knocked Maidana down twice. Following the first, commentator Manny Steward remarked that it seemed to give Maidana a quitters disposition.

But he would fight on, however discouraged he appeared, both heavy handed men throwing defense to the wayside in your classic slugfest, as I predicted in my mind how the fight would be determined: One man either scoring a knockout or getting knocked out, himself.

This outcome seemed not only inevitable, but just a matter of time, as there had been four knockdowns, both men were considerably hard punchers, and neither one of them seemed particularly concerned with protecting themselves.

Then, it happened. Maidana had a huge fifth round, using a big right hand to open up a dangerous cut over Ortiz's right eye in the process.

Following the round Ortiz's corner threatened to stop the fight if he kept leaving his hands down. He seemed badly buzzed and was asked if he wanted the fight to be stopped—to which he was noncommittal—and it looked as though the fight could be over.

When the sixth began Maidana jumped all over him, beating and chasing him into a corner and knocking him down with a barrage of punches. This seemed to seal the deal in Ortiz's mind.

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