Jamaine Ortiz fought through some troublesome moments to convincingly beat Antonio Moran on Friday night in his first fight since Ortiz tested Vasiliy Lomachenko 10½ months ago.
A resilient Ortiz recuperated twice when Moran hurt him, nearly knocked out Moran near the end of the fifth round and beat the Mexican veteran by unanimous decision in their 10-round bout on the Luis Alberto Lopez-Joet Gonzalez undercard at American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ortiz (17-1-1, 8 KOs), of Worcester, Massachusetts, won decisively on the cards of judges Chris Flores (99-91), Robert Hoyle (98-92) and Steve Weisfeld (97-93).
The right-handed Ortiz fought from a southpaw stance almost exclusively after Moran (29-5-1, 20 KOs) rocked him with a left hook in the second round. Moran also hurt Ortiz with a body shot in the fifth round, but Ortiz buzzed him late in the fifth round and again early in the eighth round.
Ortiz, 27, fought for the first time since he gave Ukraine’s Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) a more difficult fight than the three-division champion expected last October 29 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lomachenko came back from a slow start in their 12-rounder and defeated Ortiz unanimously on the scorecards.
Ortiz was supposed to meet Mexico’s Humberto Galindo (14-3, 11 KOs) on the Teofimo Lopez-Josh Taylor undercard June 10 at The Theater, but Ortiz withdrew the day before he was supposed to weigh in because he couldn’t make the contracted weight of 136 pounds. According to Ortiz, a back injury prevented him from making weight.
He shed some ring rust by going 10 rounds with Moran.
Ortiz displayed energy until the final bell and slipped many of Moran’s punches in the 10th round, when Moran seemed fatigued. Ortiz was the more accurate, active fighter during those final three minutes of action.
A straight left by Ortiz knocked Moran backward with approximately 1:10 to go in the ninth round.
Ortiz’s straight left staggered Moran and made him stumble backward a little more than 40 seconds into the eighth round. Ortiz attacked Moran, but Moran came back strong and landed a left hook that opened a cut beneath Ortiz’s right eye later in the eighth.
Moran fell backward through the second and third ropes and onto the ring apron a few seconds before the seventh round ended. Moran’s fall was the result of Ortiz pushing him, though.
Ortiz’s right uppercut stunned Moran just before the bell sounded to end the sixth round.
After a body shot hurt Ortiz earlier in the fifth round, Ortiz clipped Moran with a right hook up top that wobbled him a few seconds before that round concluded. An opportunistic Ortiz tried to finish off Moran, but he ran out of time.
Moran’s hard left to Ortiz’s body hurt him with just under 1:10 on the clock in the fifth round and forced Ortiz to move away from him
A straight left by Ortiz connected with just over 40 seconds on the clock in the fourth round. Ortiz landed a sweeping left hand with just under a minute to go in the fourth round.
A short right by Moran landed with just under 10 seconds to go in the third round. Before he took that shot, Ortiz effectively fought from a southpaw stance for some of the third round.
Moran’s left hook wobbled Ortiz with 50 seconds to go in the second round. Ortiz briefly held and later moved away from Moran to try to recover.
A right hand by Ortiz backed up Moran 45 seconds into the second round.
Moran landed multiple right hands in the first round, but he also took a couple left hooks from Ortiz.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.