Victor Ortiz on Mayweather Fight, Berto Allegations

Joseph Santoliquito of The Ring sat down for a Q&A with Victor Ortiz, and the rising star shared some thoughts on Andre Berto and his September 17 fight Floyd Mayweather.

Berto, as you might recall, made some allegations of Ortiz using performance-enhancing drugs a couple of weeks ago, after losing to Ortiz on April 16. Berto later denied that that's what he meant, but nobody much bought the excuse. Here's what Ortiz says about the situation:

"It was too bad that a former world-class champ who got his heart taken couldn’t accept that he lost. Yeah, he bitched up; he couldn’t deal with it. It didn’t anger me at all. I kind of feel sorry for Berto. To take a beating like that from me and then I take his belt, it makes me laugh; it’s a bad excuse. ... Berto was offered and he was going to look past me as some piece of crap. I knew he was done the day before I told Golden Boy I wanted the Berto fight. Then he got mad at me, blamed for steroids. Besides, I don’t take Flintsone vitamins, thank you very much. I take Centrum."

As for how he'll fight with Maywaether, Ortiz is keeping it pretty tight for now:

"I’ll take him the same way I thought Oscar De La Hoya beat him, the way Jose Luis Castillo beat him, that’s take the war to his ass. Every fighter I’ve faced is different. I’m not sure what Mayweather has planned for me, or what I have planned for Mayweather. Berto was one fight, we had a plan for him. Peterson was another fight, a different plan for him. I know how Floyd fights. We’ll come with some game plan and go from there. I’ll start training soon, maybe mid-June."

Ortiz also goes into the story about how he was being ducked at 140 pounds, which still is just amazing. Four months before he fought Andre Berto in the move to 147, Ortiz had fought contender Lamont Peterson at 140 pounds and came out with a draw despite flooring Peterson down two times. It must come as news to many of the top fighters at 140 pounds that they were so terribly unwilling to step into the ring with the monster force that devoured such in-prime notables as Vivian Harris, Nate Campbell, Antonio Diaz and Hector Alatorre after he quit against Marcos Maidana.

There's a tick to Ortiz that still bugs me despite that as a boxing fan I've softened on him, and it's everything post-Maidana. Ortiz quit in the fight, and says he's moved on from it, but I don't think he has. He claims Maidana wouldn't rematch him, but honestly, what incentive did Maidana have? Maidana used that fight to springboard to bigger fights. Ortiz was pulled back harshly by Golden Boy and spent a year and change fighting washed-up ex-contenders and a guy who had no business in the ring with him. Ortiz has "atoned" for his "sins" by beating Berto and showing what he's really made of -- he doesn't need to keep up this whole "I was ducked by everyone" thing that no one buys.