Victor Ortiz may have won a TV fight since his 2009 loss to Marcos Maidana, but the questions, doubts and concerns still lingered before the season debut of Golden Boy's "Fight Night Club" began. After a tentative, rounds-seeking effort from the Oxnard fighter tonight at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, they probably haven't been relieved for many. Ortiz finished Hector Alatorre in the tenth round of their main event fight.

While Ring Magazine writer and Golden Boy commentator Doug Fischer looked at the win as dominant and mature for Ortiz, I'm going the other way. As we discussed in the live thread, Ortiz seemed "stuck" or "lost" at points during the fight. He was absolutely never in any trouble, but that's because Hector Alatorre had no chance to trouble him. Ortiz was clearly a bigger, stronger, faster, fresher, better fighter than Alatorre, and anyone could have guessed that coming in. Alatorre (16-9, 5 KO) has now lost nine of his last 11 fights. He was a tune-up. Nothing more, nothing less.

And while there's nothing wrong with a fighter basically sparring in a winnable fight to prepare for something bigger, there's also nothing impressive about it, and for a lot of people, Ortiz needs "impressive."

Plus, my question is this. What did Ortiz learn from Alatorre? The fellow California fighter offered Ortiz no challenge, no resistance, and did not come to win this fight. Ortiz has in the past been a sucker for a straight right hand. Alatorre isn't much of a puncher, but he barely even tried to do anything offensively. Part of it, sure, was that Ortiz was so much better that Alatorre had no room to operate offensively.

But again, what does that do?

Ortiz has already beaten better fighters than Alatorre. Several, in fact. And those guys weren't just better, they were much better. Even Jeff Resto -- the washed-up former prospect that Ortiz mauled on the hideous Oscar-Manny card -- was more of a test than this. Resto, coincidentally, beat Alatorre in May 2008. That was the last fight Resto won.

We learned nothing tonight. When Ortiz (26-2-1, 21 KO) felt like finishing Alatorre, he finished him with a nice flurry in the 10th round, just 51 seconds in.

If literally all Ortiz and his team wanted was rounds, then mission: accomplished. If they wanted to develop anything, I don't know that that worked out. Alatorre just wasn't good enough for Ortiz to learn much or adapt new styles properly. And he certainly didn't prepare him for Nate Campbell, assuming that Ol' Nate has anything left in the tank at all.

On the undercard:

• Charles Huerta (13-1, 7 KO) survived a decent test in a good fight from Guadalupe de Leon (8-10, 4 KO), the man who beat the man who beat Huerta (Derrick Wilson). I scored it 59-55 for Huerta, but felt three of the rounds (1, 2 and 5) that I gave to the prospect could have gone to de Leon. Judge Raul Caiz had a 57-57 draw, while the other cards went to Huerta, 59-55 and 58-56. I think most people agree that Huerta is never going to be a great fighter, but he could be a good one, and a guy who gets plenty of TV dates.
• Luis Ramos Jr. (13-0, 6 KO) beat veteran Walter Estrada (35-12, 24 KO) via four-round sweep decision. The fellow southpaws had trouble figuring out how to attack, but Ramos mostly dictated the pace. Good early career win for Ramos, though it wasn't the most impressive or scintillating of his rise.
• Jesse Vargas (9-0, 4 KO), Karl Dargan (7-0, 3 KO), and Ricky Lopez (7-0, 2 KO) stayed unbeaten. The way Golden Boy is running prospects on this show almost reminds me of the way that British fighters come up more than the way American prospects usually do. There seems to be an understanding at Golden Boy -- like in Britain -- that not everyone has to be a star, but it's good to have a lot of house fighters around, and guys to fill out a show on the cheap, especially with a TV vehicle like FNC. Golden Boy still badly trails Top Rank in creating top fighters, but this is a step to getting prospects moving right anyway.

Golden Boy's Fight Night Club series returns live tonight from Club Nokia in Los Angeles with rebounding Victor Ortiz headlining against Hector Alatorre, a guy he should by all rights completely run over like a Mack truck barreling down on a frozen doe. If Ortiz wins, he moves on to face Nate Campbell on May 15.

Though Fox Sports Net is the TV home of the series, the show tonight will be aired on tape delay on FSN. However, RingTV.com will air the show live, starting at 11pm ET.

VICTOR ORTIZ		HECTOR ALATORRE
	Main Event

Fight Night Club is now going to air once a month, with the next show scheduled for March 25. That night, bantamweight contender Abner Mares will main event in a final tune-up before facing Yonnhy Perez for a title on May 22. It also now appears that Sergio Mora will headline on May 27. Doug Fischer reported all of this earlier.

Also in action tonight:

• Lightweights: Luis Ramos (13-0, 7 KO) v. Walter Estrada (35-11, 24 KO). Estrada has in recent fights been railroaded by Yuriorkis Gamboa, Michael Farenas and Marvin Quintero. Those three fights -- Estrada's last three -- were all KO-1s. Estrada lasted a grand total of three minutes and 59 seconds in the three fights combined.
• Featherweights: Charles Huerta (12-1, 7 KO) v. Guadalupe de Leon (8-9, 4 KO). Huerta's a decent prospect, but don't sleep on de Leon entirely. He upset Derrick Wilson on December 2 after losing seven straight fights.

We'll be live tonight with coverage and discussion for Tune-Up Club Fight Night Club, so join us!

Golden Boy's junior welterweight prospect Victor Ortiz looks to continue his path of "redemption" with a February 25 fight at Club Nokia, a total stay-warm bout against Hector Alatorre.

Ortiz (25-2-1, 20 KO) lost in a bad way last summer against Marcos Maidana in a terrific war of a fight where many felt that Ortiz simply quit, and then questioned his guts after his post-fight interview. To be fair, the interview was highly questionable to say the least.

But Ortiz, 22, says that's all in the past. He returned in December against veteran Antonio Diaz, winning when Diaz was unable to continue after six rounds. Ortiz looked quite tentative in the early part of the fight, but did pick it up a bit when he got comfortable.

Alatorre (16-8, 5 KO) is not the opponent that will tell us if anything's really changed with Ortiz. It's a fight he's beyond, to be honest. The 28-year-old Alatorre has lost eight of his last ten fights and is nothing more than a club fighter.

The good news, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times, is that a "source close to" Ortiz says that after this, a fight with former lightweight titlist Nate Campbell looks to be next. Campbell recently signed a deal with Golden Boy Promotions and seemed to struggle badly moving up in weight last August against Timothy Bradley, a fight truncated when Campbell suffered an eye injury.

Ortiz-Alatorre will be broadcast on Golden Boy's "Fight Night Club" series, which has moved to Fox Sports Net.

Robert Morales reports from the Ortiz presser that Oscar de la Hoya expressed "disgust" at the coming return of Antonio Margarito, but I think if you read between the lines you can, as usual, note some weird inconsistency in what Oscar is saying.

"I'm disgusted. The fact that they're going over California ... to get a license, I'm very disgusted by it. ... When you're messing with somebody's life in that ring, you should be banned for life. That's my opinion. ... If Margarito just comes out clean and says, 'Look, I did this, I'm sorry,' then that's a different story. He's admitting it and that's fine. But admit it."

So in summary:

1. Oscar is disgusted
2. Oscar thinks Margarito should be banned for life, UNLESS
3. Margarito admits he did it and apologizes, at which point it is "fine"

Anyone else have any major problems with the idea that an apology from Margarito makes glove-loading "fine"?