Right on the heels of the controversial knockout victory of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. against Victor Ortiz for the WBC Welterweight Championship title, the director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Keith Kizer, has announced that Ortiz has no plans of appealing his loss.
Due to the nature of the victory, many fans and experts predicted an appeal from Ortiz. While the Mexican-American does not plan to go down the said path, boxingscene.com has reported that Ortiz does have his eyes on a rematch.
During the match in the fourth round, Mayweather was seen knocking out Ortiz while the latter had his hands down and was looking towards a different direction.
The victory by Mayweather caused fans to break out into boos despite due to the nature of his victory. While Ortiz’ manager declared that they would decide to appeal after reviewing the tape, Rolando Arellano informed the concerned commission that he deemed the hit to be legal, therefore no appeal is to be made.
According to Kizer, Arellano said that “they weren’t going to appeal, and that while they weren’t happy with how the fight ended, the punches were legal. He said it was a learning experience for Victor.”
Though still angry at Mayweather, Arellano believed the hit was still legal, though more of a sucker punch for Ortiz. Arellano also added that “Victor apologized for the headbutt and in good sportsmanship he apologized again… He wanted to let Floyd know he was sorry and that is when he was hit with the sucker punch. The punch was legal so there is nothing we can do about changing this fight but we do want a rematch.”