number1contender.net

HBO Boxing After Dark Recap

"The Young and The Reckless"

March 7, 2009

San Jose Arena (HP Pavilion)-San Jose, California

This card is designed to showcase 3 young Golden Boy Promotions boxers: Robert Guerrero, Victor Ortiz and James Kirkland.

USBA/WBO NABO Junior Welterweight (140 pounds) 12-Round Championship Unification Match:

Victor Ortiz (23-1-1, 18 KO's, 140 pounds) (WBO NABO) vs. Mike Arnaoutis (21-2-2, 10 KO's, 140 pounds) (USBA)

Arnaoutis won his USBA Championship when it was vacant via 12-round unanimous decision over Harrison Cuello on March 6, 2008 at the Grand Ballroom in New York City, New York. The previous champion was Demetrius Hopkins who vacated this title, because it is relatively meaningless. Arnaoutis is making his second defense of this title.

Ortiz won his title when it was vacant via technical knockout at 2:25 of round 5 over Robert Arrieta on September 13, 2008 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The previous champion was Victor Manuel Cayo who vacated this rather meaningless to compete for another meaningless trinket in his native Dominican Republic. Ortiz is making his second defense of this title.

Ortiz had a solid amateur boxing career that culminated when he won the 2003 PAL Championship at 132 pounds.

The native of Garden City, Kansas should arguably be undefeated. His lone loss came via questionable disqualification 2:59 into round 1 against Corey Alarcon on June 3, 2005 at the Performing Arts Center in Oxnard, California.

Ortiz' last match was a technical knockout victory at 1:19 of round 2 over Jeff Resto on December 6, 2008 at the MGM Grand. Ortiz completely dominated Resto in that match. The southpaw dropped Resto twice with a right-left combo in round 1. Ortiz was landing hard straight left hands with such frequency that Emanuel Steward, who was doing color commentary of the event for HBO, thought the match should have been stopped with 50 seconds to go in round 1. However, Ortiz had to drop Resto for the third time with a left hook in round 3 to earn the stoppage. The full recap of the match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/3/15/recap-of-victor-ortiz-vs-jeff-resto.html After that win, ESPN.com named Ortiz their Prospect of the Year for 2008.

Ortiz is unranked by The Ring, and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 12 boxer in the world at 140 pounds.

Arnaoutis is a native of Athens, Greece, but now resides in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He has boxed in the United States for his entire pro career having only made 2 trips to compete abroad. Arnaoutis' pro debut on April 30, 2001 was in Kiev, Ukraine. His other match outside of the United States was a technical draw against Ibrahim Aroby at Indosiar Studio on August 15, 2003.

The Greek is another boxer whose career has been reinvigorated by a management change. Arnaoutis suffered back-to-back losses to Ricardo Torres and Kendall Holt on November 18, 2006 and April 20, 2007 respectively. The Athens native then switched management and captured his fringe title in his next match. With a win here Arnaoutis would be in position to challenge for a major belt at 140 pounds by the end of the year.

Arnaoutis' last match was a non-title 10-round unanimous decision over Ben Ankrah on October 29, 2008 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.

Arnaoutis is unranked by The Ring, and currently ranked by boxrec.com as the number 59 boxer in the world at 140 pounds.

At 22-years-old, Ortiz is 7 years younger then the 29-year-old Arnaoutis. Arnaoutis has the height advantage standing 5' 10" tall, while Ortiz stands 5' 9" tall. Ortiz has the reach advantage with a 23" arm length, compared to the 22.5" arm length of Arnaoutis. The American will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 155 pounds approaching match time. Arnaoutis has only unofficially rehydrated to 150 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the southpaw stance. However, Ortiz is naturally right-handed.

All of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from California. The referee is Ray Balewicz.

Ortiz easily wins a deliberate round 1 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. With 1:39 to go in round 2, Ortiz lands a big left hand that has Arnaoutis in trouble. Ortiz follows up and traps Arnaoutis in the corner. That forces the referee to step in and save the still standing Arnaoutis with 1:33 to go in round 2. Arnaoutis was not punching back, and a right uppercut from Ortiz caused Arnaoutis to involuntarily drop his guard. That caused the referee to move in for a very good stoppage. Arnaoutis may think it was a little early, but on replay it is clear the referee made the correct call.

The official outcome courtesy of Michael Buffer is that: at 1:27 of round 2, the referee has called a stop to this contest making the winner by technical knockout and new unified USBA and WBO NABO Junior Welterweight Champion, "Vicious" Victor Ortiz. As Buffer is announcing the result, Oscar De La Hoya is shown on camera for the first time at a boxing event since being stopped by Manny Pacquiao on December 6. De La Hoya is shown congratulating his young star in the ring with a very impressed look on his face. The win moves Ortiz to 24-1-1 with now 19 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punchstat numbers show how dominant Ortiz was landing 19 of the 58 total punches he threw, for a 33% total connect percentage. Ortiz landed 18 of the 29 power punches he threw, for an outstanding 62% power connect percentage. Arnaoutis landed only 3 of the 31 total punches he threw, for a pathetic 10% total connect percentage. The Greek landed 2 of the 8 power punches he threw, for a 25% power connect percentage.

Ortiz said in his post-match interview that he is ready for anyone at the top of the division. He also said he wants to go to Taco Bell, which luckily is only about a 5 minute drive from The Arena. (However, he would be much better off with Sue's Mongolian Bar-B-Q next to Santa Clara University it is less then a 10 minute drive from The Arena.)

The young boxer was great in this match. Ortiz started a little slow, but did not really show anything else he could improve on in this match. There are a lot of big names now at 140 pounds, and Ortiz may be too dangerous without the name value for any of them at this time. He is probably going to need to box on 1 or 2 more HBO BAD events before maybe getting a title shot at the end of the year. Ortiz is also tentatively scheduled to compete next on that June 27 HBO BAD event. If he wins quickly there and picks up another quick win in September, Ortiz could challenge for a title on the undercard of the big PPV in December.

Arnaoutis was completely dominated in this match. This was his first knockout loss. However, this was a far worse setback then most knockout losses. Arnaoutis did not land his first punch until 2:17 seconds into the match. The Greek is going to need to take some matches as the semi-main events of ESPN cards to rebuild from this blow out loss.

Ortiz appeared to be the most promising prospect coming out of this show. None of the matches on this event were competitive. Anyone who missed this event did not miss much.