It isn’t Mayweather vs Pacquiao but it will have to do for boxing fans.
Arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, Floyd Mayweather, will take on Victor Ortiz, Saturday night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Those not lucky enough to attend the event will be able to catch it on HBO PPV for $59.50.
Mayweather, 34, brings his undefeated record (41-0, 25 KOs) into the ring for the first time in 16 months for a piece of the welterweight title. It’s unclear how much his age, and absence from the ring will affect Mayweather, but odds makers are still on his side.
His last fight was May 1, 2010 when he beat Shane Mosley.
Nearly a year and a half away from the ring, the always-confident boxer hasn’t lost that swagger.
“I’m coming straight ahead,” Mayweather said. “This fight is not going the distance.”
“My fans have been waiting long enough,” he tweeted out to his fans in June, when the fight was announced.
Mayweather’s opponent, Cruz (29-2-2, 22 KOs), is a decade younger at only 24 years old and has dealt with a lot before his rise in boxing that will now put him in the same ring as one of the best boxers in the world. He won the WBC welterweight title in April when he defeated Andre Berto.
Just 11 years ago, at the age of 13, Cruz was in Foster care after both his parents abandoned him and his siblings.
“I understand his tactics,” Ortiz said, according to the Associated Press. “He has a loud mouth and has to put somebody down. But it’s always been me against everyone, and this is no different for me.”
Ortiz weighed in at 147 pounds, and Mayweather was a half pound lighter.
-With Associated Press
