Fighting in the main event of a PBC on FOX card, it was a fight neither Victor Ortiz and Devon Alexander could afford to lose. In fact, neither man lost at all.
Ortiz and Alexander fought to a majority draw on February 17 in what was a fight that could determine the career fates of two former world champions. One judge had it 115-113 in favor of Ortiz while the other two judges had the fight dead even at 114-114. The fight, contested at welterweight, was not a world title eliminator or had any titles on the line, but the winner would have put himself in a position to potentially challenge for a world title. With the fight ending in a draw, the future of both boxers is uncertain.
It was a dubious decision as many people in the boxing community, including the Fox broadcast team, had Alexander winning by a wide margin. Alexander had outboxed Ortiz throughout much of the fight, including landing a punch in the third round which caused Ortiz's left eye to swell up.
"I absolutely thought I won the fight," Alexander said after the fight. "The last few rounds I probably gave him, but I thought I outlanded him in the 12th. I thought I did enough to win. I gave him three rounds."
Ortiz was statistically the more active fighter, throwing more total punches than Alexander, but Alexander outlanded Ortiz and was more accurate in his punches. According to Compubox, Alexander landed 155 of 485 punches (32 percent) while Ortiz only connected on 137 of 550 punches (25 percent).
The two former world champions returned with a win last year in separate fights after both men had long breaks from the sport that lasted more than a year. Between the two boxers, only Alexander was ranked in any of the four governing bodies' top 15 rankings, sitting at No. 6 in the IBF welterweight rankings.