Victor Ortiz was grouchy as he spoke on the phone about his fight against Antonio Diaz on Saturday in Chicago, which is typical of fighters trying to make weight. The last thing he wanted to talk about was his most-recent fight, a knockout loss to Marcos Maidana in June.

That, too, is understandable. That was a great night for fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles, as Maidana and Ortiz engaged in a thrilling battle. It was not a good night for Ortiz.

The then-rising contender had Maidana down three times in the first three rounds and, it seemed in serious trouble, but it was the hard-punching Argentine who ended the show by beating Ortiz into submission in the sixth.

And that was only part of his ordeal. That Oritz appeared to give up and his comments immediately afterward –- apparently implying that boxing might not be for him -- compounded the disaster. He was called a quitter and even a coward, leaving him both bitter and philosophical only days before his comeback fight.

“People always have things to say,” he said. “You’re not always going to make everyone happy. Look at Oscar (De La Hoya). He’s been a successful fighter and business man. Does he make people happy? Not necessarily. I hear people say bad things about him. One out of 10 people are going to tear you down.

“They build you up to tear you down. That’s how it is. I’m just not interested in what people say about me now. That might sound rude or something but that’s it.”

Ortiz (24-2-1, 19 knockouts) will talk about that awful night reluctantly. He said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to make excuses but was compelled to explain his state of mind going into the ring.

The Kansas native, who moved to California to pursue his boxing career, said he “didn’t show up that night (against Maidana).” He apparently had a falling out with his brother, with whom he is particularly close because of a difficult childhood. The brother and a sister bolted town and missed the fight.

As a result, Ortiz said he felt lost and carried that feeling into the ring.

“I wasn’t there,” he said. “It wasn’t me. I had a lot of problems, problems I don’t want to talk about. I just didn’t have by brother around, my sister, to back me up. I was by myself. It sucked. I remember telling myself in the locker room before the fight, ‘I feel like going home.’

“I wasn’t me. And that’s that. I just didn’t know what the hell I was doing in there.”

Ortiz certainly wasn’t the slick young boxer we’ve come to know against Maidana. He inexplicably brawled with one of the most-dangerous brawlers in the world, at first faring well but then falling victim to Maidana’s power.

That part might be easy to fix. He learned the tough way that he must play to his strengths –- his boxing ability –- rather than to the strengths of his opponent. Lesson learned. He acknowledges his mistakes and vows that it won’t happen again.

The way he lost and his comments, though, are trickier. Immediately after the fight ended, HBO analyst Max Kellerman uttered the words that many others were thinking: “We just saw a moment in a fighter’s career that could define his career. Ortiz was dropped, cut, exhausted, faced with an opponent who refused to lose and in a moment of weakness gave up.”

On Saturday and in subsequent fights, all eyes will be on him wondering what will happen when he again faces extreme adversity. Will he quit? Will he fight through it? He says simply: Just watch; you’ll see.

And the post-fight comments? Ortiz has explained repeatedly that they were made in an emotional moment, only minutes after he took the worse pounding of his life. He said he never meant to imply that he might consider retirement at 22.

“This is what I was born to do,” he said, his voice rising. “… All I meant was that I would take a break, go back to the gym, to the blackboard, and figure out why I performed the way I did. That was it.”

Rolando Arellano, Ortiz’s manager, has no doubt that the fighter was and remains committed to the sport. One way to prove it, he said, was to put Ortiz in with Maidana-like sluggers in sparring during this training camp.

Ortiz, Arellano said, passed the test.

“We wanted to put a pit bull in front of him,” Arellano said, “someone with experience who would take a lot of punches and keep coming forward. That frustrates Victor. So that’s exactly what we did; we found a couple of kids from East L.A. who you could hit with a bat all day and they’ll keep coming.

“How did Victor react? Just fine. He didn’t submit; he used his boxing skills. My immediate thought was, ‘OK, here we are.’”

Ortiz said he didn’t dwell on the loss to Maidana and subsequent fallout the past six months. In fact, he said he’s had a great time, which included surfing -– a new passion -- regularly near his home in Oxnard, Calif.

Not even surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his wrist, suffered during the Maidana fight, could keep him out of the waves. His cast, which he wore for two months, was water proof. That also allowed him to run during his time off.

Now, though, his focus is back on boxing and tough veteran Diaz (46-5-1, 29 KOs). And, with his siblings around him, he knows exactly what he needs to do to change the perception of anyone who thinks he’s a quitter.

“There’s nothing I can say to change anyone’s mind,” he said. “Action speaks louder than words.”


Michael Rosenthal can be reached at RingTVeditor@yahoo.com