“Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around,” the eponymous Calvin once said in Bill Watterson’s legendary comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Boxing seems to apply the same principle to those who lose close, controversial decisions.
In this case, the bad mood belonged to Jamaine Ortiz, who lost a narrow decision to Teofimo Lopez Jnr in February, and the poor soul who took the brunt of it turned out to be Argentina’s Cristian Ruben Mino, whom Ortiz violently stopped in four rounds on Friday night at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
Ortiz scored four concussive knockdowns – three via blows to the head and one from successive right hands that he dug into Mino’s side. After the final knockdown, referee Michael Dejesus mercifully waved off the fight.
Mino just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as Ortiz seemed bound and determined to prove a point in his return. Having lost to Lopez 117-111 and 115-113 (twice), Ortiz – who may have fought overly defensively but effectively neutralized all of his opponent’s aggression – needed an opponent against whom he could look good and perhaps take out his frustrations.
In any case, Mino had nothing for Ortiz, 18-2-1 (9 KOs). He lost each and every exchange on Friday night and spent the entire fight in full retreat. Moreover, Mino, 24-10-2 (17 KOs), lacked the physical capabilities to do anything else.
The result: Ortiz, 28, of Worcester, Massachusetts, essentially looked like a perfect fighting machine. That his opponent was made-to-order also makes the outcome impossible to take at face value. Ortiz’s only career losses have come against Lopez and Vasiliy Lomachenko, and he was competitive in each. To be five per cent less talented than Lopez and 10 per cent less so than Lomachenko is no sin; in fact, it makes Ortiz worthy of a Lopez rematch or a fight with another elite junior welterweight opponent. He just didn’t need to pummel Cristian Ruben Mino for everybody to know that.
Kaipo Gallegos, 18, looks like he’s already in his prime
In the co-main event, emerging 18-year-old Las Vegan Kaipo Gallegos dismantled Florida’s Iron Alvarez for a seventh-round stoppage in a junior lightweight matchup scheduled for eight rounds. A name that blends Mike Tyson’s alias and Canelo’s surname could not save Alvarez from the forthcoming punishment – and nor could his rusty skills.
Gallegos, 7-0-1 (6 KOs), flashed the faster hands and feet throughout, landing clean straight lefts through Alvarez’s guard and evading the worst of the return fire. Alvarez looked comparatively slow in the opening rounds, his first since September 2022. The 31-year-old Alvarez, 15-3 (11 KOs), proved most similar to Canelo in his unyielding chin and even grew into the fight slightly as it progressed, but he could not meaningfully trouble his opponent. Gallegos threw a vicious sequence of power shots in the seventh, landing nearly all of them flush, and Alvarez’s slight stumble moments later was all referee Frank Santore Jnr needed to wave off the bout.
Just two notes on the young Gallegos: He seemed a relatively easy target for the uppercut. And his thick black hair, which bounced and trembled far too obviously every time a punch even came close to his face, needs trimming.
A new ‘Pitbull’ on the scene
In a six-round lightweight bout, Alex Rios edged Felix Santana Jnr over the distance with overwhelming aggression, earning three 58-56 scorecards and drawing repeated comparisons to Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz from broadcasters Claudia Trejos and Michael Woods. (The fighters’ blocky, shaven heads merited the comparison as much as their fighting styles.)
The 23-year-old Rios, 9-2 (3 KOs), moved forward inexorably and threw often and viciously to the body in the opening rounds. Either fatigued from trying to keep Rios at bay or weakened from the heavy blows to his midsection, Santana, 7-2 (3 KOs), slowed by the middle rounds and tied up frequently.
Santana, 34, must have felt his opponent’s youth. He landed some jabs and clean counter shots but failed to match Rios’ potent offense. “I’m still in this sport even though I lost twice – that doesn’t mean nothing,” Rios declared triumphantly after the fight, endearing himself further to the fans with his vulnerability.
Chavez Barrientes and Noah Contreras go the distance
The card’s opening bout saw a pair of inexperienced junior featherweights fight, and finish, eight rounds for the first time. Chavez Barrientes won a wide unanimous decision over Noah Contreras to move to 10-0 (6 KOs). All three judges scored the fight 80-69.
Barrientes, 22, scored three knockdowns: a rapid right hand in the first, a more hurtful salvo of lefts in the sixth and clubbing rights that forced Contreras to the canvas once more just moments before the final bell. The rangy Barrientes easily kept Contreras on the end of his jab, while his opponent tried and largely failed to penetrate his 74-inch reach to land combinations on the inside.
Regardless, Contreras, 9-2 (3 KOs), a 27-year-old barber and father of three, lasted the distance against an opponent named after Julio Cesar Chavez. That’s something.
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