50 facts about Victor Ortiz, professional boxer and film actor

Vicious" Victor Ortiz is and 50 things from his life and career.

1. "Vicious" Victor Ortiz is an American professional boxer and film actor of Mexican descent.

2. Victor Ortiz is a former WBC Welterweight Champion.

3. Victor Ortiz was previously in the light welterweight division, where he held the USBA & NABO titles.

4. Victor Ortiz with a crowd-pleasing, aggressive style, two-fisted power and boyish charm, was made the 2008 ESPN Prospect of the Year.

5. Victor Ortiz was formerly rated as one of the "top three" welterweight boxers in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring, BoxRec.com, and ESPN.

6. The first loss and the two draws on Ortiz's record are not counted as significant due to the fact the loss came by way of disqualification in the first round for knocking Corey Alarcon cold with an uppercut off a clinch.

7. The first of two draws was a first-round technical draw in January 2007, when Ortiz faced Marvin Cordova Jr., when an accidental head-butt opened a cut on Ortiz's forehead and rendered him unable to continue.

8. The second draw was a controversial one against Lamont Peterson, as ESPN.com and HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman both had it 97-91 in favor for the 23-year-old Ortiz.

9. For his first film role, Ortiz appeared in The Expendables 3.

10. He also appeared in the sports drama film Southpaw.

11. Victor Ortiz was born and raised in Garden City, Kansas, and is the third of four children of Mexican parents.

12. When he was seven years old, Ortiz's mother abandoned her family for a relationship with another man.

13. Shortly thereafter, Ortiz began boxing at the insistence of his father, an alcoholic who often beat his children following his wife's departure.

14. In an interview, Victor said, "I hated that lady. I drew her a card once with a little rose on it and I gave it to her. She just threw it down and said 'What do I want that shit for?' That's when I picked up boxing. Then my Dad started screwing up, drinking."

15. Ortiz' father also abandoned the family five years after their mother left, which forced Ortiz and his five siblings into the Kansas foster care system. was twelve years old at the time.

16. His older sister would become a legal adult in 2002 and moved to Denver, Colorado.

17. Victor Ortiz and his younger brother left Kansas and moved in with her.

18. While training at a Salvation Army Red Shield Community Center, he was noticed by former heavyweight boxing contender Ron Lyle, who had become a supervisor at the center.

19. In 2003, Lyle guided Ortiz to a Junior Olympics tournament, where, at the age of sixteen, he won the 132-pound weight division with a perfect 5-0 record. This time, he was noticed by another former boxer, Roberto Garcia, who had held the IBF Super Featherweight Championship during the 1990s and whose father was the trainer of Fernando Vargas.

20. Though Garcia was based in Oxnard, California, he offered to train Ortiz, who accepted and moved from Colorado to California, where he began training at Oxnard's famous La Colonia Youth Boxing Club.

21. Garcia later became Ortiz's legal guardian, and Ortiz graduated from Pacifica High School.

22. At age 16, Ortiz won the 2003 Police Athletic League national championships in Toledo, then at seventeen, Ortiz reached the United States Olympic boxing trials in the 132-pound weight class, where he was eliminated in the champion's bracket semifinals (The weight class was instead won by Vicente Escobedo).

23. Victor Ortiz turned professional later in 2004 while still only seventeen years of age.

24. When he reached the age of eighteen in 2005 and became a legal adult, he gained custody of his younger brother, who is now a college student.

25. Victor Ortiz continues to reside in Ventura, California.

26. Victor Ortiz boxed at The Garden City Boxing club where he was trained by five trainers who all worked together to get him ahead in his boxing career.

27. His original trainers included Ignacio "Buck" Avilia, Manuel Rios, Antonio Orozco Sr., Juan M. Aldana Jr. and Alfred Ritz.

28. Victor Ortiz won the Ringside National Title in 2001 and 2002 and the National Jr. Olympics in 2002.

29. After turning professional, Ortiz easily won his first seven fights against weak opposition.

30. However, on June 3, 2005, Ortiz was controversially disqualified in the first round of a bout against unknown Corey Alarcon in Oxnard. After having already knocked Alarcon down once in the round, Ortiz knocked him down again shortly after referee David Denkin ordered the fighters to separate from a clinch. Alarcon stayed down for the count and was awarded the fight based on Denkin's judgment that Ortiz's knockout punch had been an illegal punch during a break.

31. Following the fight with Alarcon, Ortiz continued to win and had built a record of 18-1-1 as of August 30, 2007, when he fought his first well-known opponent, Emmanuel Clottey of Ghana, in only his second bout scheduled for ten rounds. Ortiz defeated Clottey by technical knockout in the tenth and final round.

32. Three months later, Ortiz followed up on his victory with another knockout win, this time in the first round of a ten-round bout against former junior welterweight titlist Carlos Maussa of Colombia.

33. On September 13, 2008, Ortiz fought his first bout scheduled for twelve rounds, against Roberto David Arrieta of Argentina. Ortiz knocked Arrieta down in the second, fourth and fifth rounds and won by technical knockout in the fifth round.

34. At the end of 2008, ESPN named Ortiz the boxing prospect of the year.

35. On March 7, 2009, Ortiz fought his first bout televised on HBO World Championship Boxing against Mike Arnaoutis of Greece, who had fought top-ten light welterweight contenders such as Juan Urango, Ricardo Torres and Kendall Holt without ever having been knocked out.

36. On June 27, 2009, Ortiz faced Marcos Rene Maidana (25-1-0) of Argentina in Los Angeles for the Interim WBA Light Welterweight title.

37. Before the Maidana fight, Ortiz fired Roberto Garcia and Garcia's father. Ortiz expressed how the Garcias constantly humiliated him through derogatory speech but would then hire Garcia's brother Danny.

38. After recovering from a broken wrist and switching trainers, Ortiz announced his return fight would be on HBO Boxing After Dark.

39. On December 12, 2009, Ortiz bounced back from the defeat he suffered vs Maidana to stop Antonio Díaz, who failed to answer the bell for the seventh round. Ortiz then fought Hector Alatorre on February 25, 2010 winning by TKO in the tenth and final round.

40. Ortiz was victorious in a unanimous decision victory over Nate Campbell on May 15 at Madison Square Garden on the Undercard of Amir Khan vs. Paulie Malignaggi.

41. On September 18, 2010 Victor faced former WBA Light Welterweight Champion Vivian Harris on the Shane Mosley vs. Sergio Mora undercard at Staples Center. He was on ESPN's SportsNation to promote the fight with Harris. Victor landed 25-of-54 power punches.

42. Ortiz fought Andre Berto for the WBC Welterweight title on April 16, 2011 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket. Hailed as the early pick for the fight of the year, Ortiz won the fight by unanimous decision over Berto.

43. On June 7, 2011, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. announced via Twitter that he and Ortiz had an agreement to fight on September 17, 2011. The fight was for Ortiz's WBC Welterweight belt.

44. Victor Ortiz first appeared on screen as an actor in the action film The Expendables 3. He played the character of Mars, a young American soldier recruited onto the Expendables team.

45. Ortiz appeared in a sports drama film called Southpaw. He stared along with Jake Gyllenhaal as a young boxer named Ramone.

46. Ortiz is a right-hander who nevertheless chooses to fight from a southpaw stance.

47. Victor Ortiz has stated, "I'm naturally right-handed. Everything I do is right-handed. My power is just built on my left hand, somehow. Fighting left-handed was just more comfortable for me. I was just a better boxer that way. My defense was better, I didn't get hit as much. I just developed myself into a left-hander. I don't even like to switch to right-handed."

48. Victor Ortiz participated on the sixteenth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. His professional partner was former So You Think You Can Dance competitor Lindsay Arnold. They were the fourth couple to be eliminated on the sixth week of competition.

49. Despite the encouragement to retire from his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya, Ortiz fought Manuel Pérez on the undercard of the December 13, 2014 Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander fight. Ortiz defeated Perez by TKO in the 3rd round.

50. In the fight, Victor suffered a hand injury that required surgery to repair the problem. His next fight has not yet been scheduled, but he expects to be back in the ring towards the end of 2015.

Source: Wikipedia.org