“I’ll just say it … he quit. I wouldn’t have done that,” heavyweight contender Chris Arreola said after a few moments of hemming and hawing.
The response to the way the fight ended and Ortiz’s subsequent comments, which seemed to confirm that he gave up early in the sixth round of the thrilling brawl, has largely been damning. Ortiz has been called everything from a coward to a quitter.
And a damage-control statement released Tuesday, in which Ortiz states that his comments were an emotional response to the loss, isn’t going to help much.
No one who knows anything about this game would call Ortiz or any other professional boxer a coward. It just isn’t true. And few are comfortable even labeling this skillful and powerful athlete a flat out quitter.
