Ortiz vs Lopez: Vicious' Loss Is Product of His Own Mistakes

Victor "Vicious" Ortiz's broken jaw is more a product of a collection of boneheaded mistakes and miscalculations than it is a product of Jose "Josesito" Lopez's fist connecting with his face.

Ortiz lost the WBC Welterweight title last night more than Lopez won it. Lopez fought a great fight—perhaps one of the best of his life—but Ortiz made it easy for him.

Before Lopez rearranged Ortiz's jawbone in the ninth round of Saturday's title fight, Ortiz had done a few things that no professional boxer should do before or during a fight.

First, foremost and most detrimental to his chances in this bout was the hype surrounding his Sept. 15 fight against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Ortiz's camp and Golden Boy Promotions, which represents both Ortiz and Alvarez, talked the fight up way too much.

The fight was contingent on Ortiz beating Lopez, something that "Little" Jose took offense to.

"I felt disrespected," Lopez said. "I wanted to mess up their plans."

If there's one thing you learn from the moment you start competing, it's that you should never underestimate your next opponent. Ortiz clearly wasn't too worried about Lopez and was looking three months into the future. 

That's how teams are upset in other sports. The powerhouse basketball program overlooks their opening round matchup against the disrespected mid-major team and gets sent home before they play their second game of the NCAA Tournament (see No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 Lehigh for more details).

Ortiz did plenty of things wrong in the ring, too. He's bigger and stronger than Lopez, but he didn't use that to his advantage as much as he should have. He used his physical advantages to keep Lopez on the run, but once again suffered the consequences of his lack of defensive capabilities. 

Lopez landed plenty of counterpunches over the course of the bout and even sent Ortiz retreating on a few occasions.

He made a colossal mistake when he punched Lopez in the back of the head, an action which appeared to fire up Lopez after he shook the cobwebs off.

It was one of the more blatant rabbit punches that we have seen. The punch wasn't a freak occurrence; it was a mean-spirited cheap shot.

Then came the left hook that broke Ortiz's jaw.

Lopez called Ortiz out after the fight, saying that he "has no heart," and rightfully so. Nobody stopped the fight because of Ortiz's broken jaw; he quit. He quit a title fight when he was capable of pressing on, even when his corner was encouraging him to fight through it.

Of course, a broken jaw is a huge problem for a boxer, but Ortiz should have been fighting for a title belt with everything he had from start to finish.

"Vicious" appeared to be winning on the scorecard before he quit. With the majority of the match already behind him, Ortiz should have fought until he could no longer stand. 

Ortiz didn't only cost himself a title belt. He cost himself quite a long time of eating solid foods, as well as a fight with "Canelo" Alvarez, one that was primed to be the best of the night.