Mayweather vs. Ortiz: Ortiz Isn't Fast Enough to KO Mayweather

After a 16-month absence, Floyd Mayweather makes his triumphant return to the boxing ring to challenge Victor Ortiz for the WBC welterweight championship on Saturday night. There has been a lot of talk about Ortiz' knockout power heading into this bout, but you have to be powerful and fast if you want to drop Mayweather.

Ortiz has good speed but he is not at Mayweather's level. There is no fighter in the world that is able to do the things that Mayweather can do in the ring. He is the most defensive fighter in the sport, and he is able to have success fighting that way because he is so fast.

Mayweather is an artist in the ring. He can back away from his opponent, stop on a dime, throw a right hook and move away before his opponent knows what hit him.

Ortiz showed better striking ability and a bit more speed in his previous fight against Andre Berto. It was his performance in that fight that convinced Mayweather to agree to this fight. As good as Ortiz looked against Berto, Mayweather is far superior to Berto in the ring.

This is not to dismiss Ortiz or belittle his accomplishments, but the only way that he is going to knock out Mayweather is if Mayweather makes a mistake. There is nothing Ortiz can do on his own that will overwhelm Mayweather and cause him to drop to the canvas.

If Ortiz is going to win this fight, he is going to have to wait for Mayweather to move in and counter punch everything that he does.

If Ortiz gets overaggressive, Mayweather will have a field day.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that Ortiz will win this fight because Mayweather has been out of the action for so long. We don't know exactly what kind of shape he is in physically. We don't know if that lightning-quick speed is still there for him.

But Mayweather is a lot like Anderson Silva in UFC; you can't pick against him until you actually see him lose.

In the end, the difference in this fight will be Mayweather's quickness and his ability to avoid taking the big punch that Ortiz must land in order to win this fight.