Victor Ortiz was a guest yesterday on ESPN First Take, and later in the night he did a brief interview on Friday Night Fights. I found the Friday Night Fights interview to be typical Ortiz. He's got that Oscar de la Hoya/Cam Newton thing down pat, that thing where you go from smiling with your sparkly eyes to furrowing your brow for "real talk."
Besides discussing his April 16 battle with Andre Berto, Ortiz talks about the rumors that he'll fight Floyd Mayweather Jr (which I think at this point is going to happen), what he thinks of Pacquiao vs Mayweather ("they're both good dudes to me"), and other stuff.
Look, it really is a good interview, I think, but I'm admittedly just not the target for this. Honestly, and I know this makes me an irrational "hater," I'm always going to like watching Victor Ortiz fight, but I don't know that I can ever take to him talking. So he really might be the next Oscar after all.
I mean, this interview is so Oscar, isn't it? I'm at least not crazy about that, right?
For the most part, though, even being dumb like I'll be about this, I really am happy that Victor is getting appearances like this, because even though I find him a little goofy, I think he's got the sort of personality that a lot of people take to, and could be a vehicle for more people watching boxing. He talks about visions of the fight and NEVER BACKING DOWN and the hard work it takes to be the champ and overcoming the odds. He's like a Nickelback song or something, and people seem to love that stuff. They sure took to Oscar, after all, who made a few bucks along the way doing this whole "boxing" thing, so if Oscar's coaching him on how to engage the mass audience of easily-convinced people who might go, "I don't like boxing much, but I do like that (certain fighter)," well, you really can't have a better coach than that.
I am disappointed he cut his Tough Guy Hair and Goatee, though. I actually thought, once I got used to it, that that was a better look for him than this squeaky-clean thing he's gone back to. Ah, well.