Berto‘s victory comes after he lost to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. via a unanimous decision last September 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ortiz is coming off two straight TKO wins against Manuel Pérez and Gilberto Sanchez Leon before facing Berto in a rematch.
In the opening round, both fighters exchanged jabs and some body shots but a headbutt caused a temporary stoppage as the referee checked on Ortiz who had a but cut with blood flowing from it to his eyes The fight resumed and it was a fairly even round.
In round two, Ortiz scored with right and left combinations as Berto appeared took cover from Ortiz sudden aggressiveness. Ortiz continued to move around and caught Berto with a big left and was down for the first time. He came back and survive the round.
In the third round, Ortiz came out swinging as he attacked Berto with a series of left and right combos. Ortiz failed to finish Berto but clearly won the round.
Ortiz started with a jab to the body in the fourth round. But suddenly Berto caught Ortiz with hard uppercut sending Ortiz to the canvas. Ortiz was up but Berto threw a series of left and right combinations and Ortiz went down again and this time his legs were wobbly and barely made it to the out. The referee waved off as he failed to respond when asked if he can still continue.
“Me, mentally, I was in dog mode,” Berto said. “I let him walk through it the first time … he was the guy who gave me my first loss and it’s been looming for years.”
“This time, I’m in shape and [thought] if I have to hurt him, I will. It was the most satisfying win of my career,” he added.
For his part, Ortiz said he failed to see Berto’s power shot coming as he acknowledged Berto’s punching power.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Ortiz said of the Berto punches that dropped him. “The guy doesn’t hit soft. I’ll be back. I haven’t had the perfect career, but I guarantee all the fans here enjoyed my fight.”he added.
With the win, Berto’s career record improved to 31-4-0, 23 KOs while Ortiz dropped to 31-6-2 with 24 knockouts.
