The title may be almost meaningless, but the performance certainly was not as Ortiz nearly finished the fight in the first round as he drove Orozco into the ropes, badly stunning and I wouldn't have argued had the referee ruled that a knockdown.
Ortiz then settled into a groove and even though Orozco continued to throw punches with occasional success, Ortiz was showing the type of patience that future champions possess as he entered the sixth round for the first time in his career.
Ortiz landed a huge uppercut early in the sixth that really was the end of the fight as Orozco hit the floor.
Orozco showed a massive heart in rising, but soon was dropped again and could have packed the evening in right there. but lifted himself up one more time and attempted to hold on, but a screaming Ortiz left hook sent Orozco to the floor once more and there was no need to see anything further as the fight was called off.
For Ortiz, it was a solid win over a world-class level fighter, although Orozco had proven himself at junior welterweight, not at welterweight and showed that he can be more than a one-dimensional hitter as he moves higher up the welterweight rankings.
The biggest problem for Ortiz might be similar to that of Terence Crawford in the welterweight division- his promoter/media presenter just doesn't have anyone for him to fight.
The only DAZN (and not even Golden Boy Promotions) fighter in the division in the top ten is Jessie Vargas, so that fight would make sense as something to pursue, but other than Vargas there is next to nothing available in the division at this time.
Vergil Ortiz might be the next star welterweight, let's hope he gets the chance to prove it.
In the other fight in the challenge, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr knocked out Evert Bravo in the first round after landing a body shot.
Chavez looked strong in his first fight at 175 pounds, but Bravo had been knocked out in three of his previous four fights, so let's see him in his next outing.
In the boxing challenge, I scored three points to Ramon Malpica's two to extend my lead to 203-176.
Finally, on the ESPN card that I watched, despite not placing any fights for the boxing challenge, one of those fights that you love to see, but rarely occur took place in Philadelphia as the highly-touted prospect lost against the fighter brought in as an enhancement talent.
This one was even bigger than just a touted prospect as two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez was shocked by 5-2-2 Adan Gonzales in a split decision that should have been unanimous.
Ramirez suffered a flash knockdown in the first round when a Gonzales left hand knocked Ramirez off balance and when Ramirez's glove steadied him on the floor, it was correctly ruled a knockdown.
With a 10-8 first-round against him, Ramirez would have to sweep the next three rounds to win the fight and all things considered, it was still considered likely, but instead, Gonzales continued to win the exchanges as Ramirez looked stuck in the amateur style, didn't work off his jab as the taller and longer fighter and most importantly was outworked throughout the fight as I scored Gonzales a 39-36 victor.
To no one's surprise, there is always the house judge as somehow David Braslow scored Ramirez a 38-37 winner, meaning that on his card, Ramirez did win the final three rounds.
The bigger surprise, which says a lot for boxing, is that the other two judges didn't find a way to score the fight for the house fighter and gave Gonzales a split decision win.
We'll see if this win is the highlight of the career for Adan Gonzales or if he has a future ahead of him, but for one night Gonzales was as good as he had to be to pull a huge and unexpected upset.
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