By Robert Jackson: A couple of days ago boxing trainer Danny Garcia confirmed his split with Victor Ortiz in the aftermath of Ortiz’ devastating loss to Josesito Lopez. A Victor Ortiz win against Lopez would have secured Ortiz a big fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 15, 2012. Now, Ortiz may not see action for 6 months or more after surgery which included implanting titanium rods to repair his broken jaw. This final event sees the trainer and fighter going their separate ways.
After a 6-month respite, whom might Ortiz choose to corner him on his return to the ring? We’re all aware of Ortiz’ up-and-down career so any choice that Ortiz makes would be based on chemistry, experience and training technique that could make Ortiz a more complete fighter.. Ortiz’ primary area of improvement will be his mindset; any trainer brought in will have to address and improve Ortiz’ mental approach to each and every fight. Defense would be another area where Ortiz could use improvement.
Several big name trainers come to mind that I’m sure will be in consideration once Ortiz is ready after his time off, these are:
1. Emanuel Steward who beyond his glory years with Thomas Hearns, has been a ‘renovation’ trainer, rebuillding Wladimir Klitschko’s and Miguel Cotto’s careers after disastrous losses. The main rub here would be that Ortiz would have to relocate his training to Detroit, while also being a lesser priority on Steward’s schedule having to compete for Steward’s time with Klitschko, Andy Lee and K9 bundrage to name a few.
2. Ronnie Shields, former fighter who trains fighters out of Savannah’s Gym in Houston Texas and counts as one of his trainees 154lb fringe contender Erislandy Lara.
3. Freddie Roach, owner of LA’s Wild Card gym, trainer for Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Lateef Kayode, Vanes Martirosyan and others. As was the case with Manny Steward, Ortiz’ would have to compete with other Roach fighters for Roach’s time, but at least the sparring would be good.
4. Roberto Garcia, training out of Garcia’s Fight Academy in Oxnard California – former trainer of Victor Ortiz, current trainer for Nonito Donaire, Brandon Rios, Mikey Garcia and Kelly Pavlik. Once again Ortiz would be the low man on the totem pole and have to take whatever time Garcia has left to prepare him, but great sparring would be available for him.
5. Jeff Mayweather, trains fighters out of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas Nevada and is an established trainer who oversees Cellestino Caballero’s training and has wokred with heavyweight Ray Austin in the past. Mayweather’s training style is to improve not change a fighters fighting style.
6. Nacho Beristain, trains fighters out of Mexico City’s Romanza Gym and is the head trainer for Juan Manuel Marquez. Beristain has also worked with Abner Mares, Vicente Escobedo and Alfredo Angulo. To work with Beristain, Ortiz would have to relocate to live and train out of Mexico City.
Ortiz on his return may chose one of the listed trainers or one of the many trainers out there who can serve his purposes; he may even decide to reconcile with Danny Garcia after looking at the success they had together. In any case choose he will . Who do the readers think he will choose? Send comments to jackrc58@yahoo.com.