Bad Left Hook

Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer says that Andre Berto will get a second opinion from a Los Angeles Lakers team doctor on his ruptured bicep, and that any pursuit of a make-up date for the canceled February 11 fight with Victor Ortiz will wait until a recovery timeline is laid out, as you'd expect. From RingTV.com:

"If it's not an extended period, then, obviously, the idea is to go straight into the fight. But if not Andre -- and again, we are only speculating that he could be out for an extended period -- then the idea is that Victor would do a fight in between because Victor is not going to just sit around."

There are plenty of good fights for Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO) to take in the interim, and I still wouldn't count out a potential rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 5. The reason I'm thinking that is not because Mayweather vs Ortiz II is some big, desirable fight, really, just that Floyd does have to fight someone, and the options are limited. Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez should still be considered the front-runners, but there could be issues on either side.

So who else is out there for Ortiz? The cupboard is fairly bare at welterweight.

Jan Zaveck

I know Berto just beat Zaveck (well, in September), but it was a good fight. Ortiz would be favored, but Zaveck comes to scrap and he and Ortiz could put on a good action fight, which Ortiz likely won't lose. Zaveck is credible and would probably love another crack at a top U.S. name.

Shane Mosley

Well, he's going to fight again whether I or you or anyone else likes it or not. Gut feeling is Golden Boy would greatly, greatly prefer sacrificing Splenda Shane to Alvarez, who has more to gain from the win than does Ortiz. Neither legitimately would gain anything at all, but given that 30% of people have turned a blind eye to Mosley's last three rotten fights, it does appear as though there is some value left in having Canelo beat the welterweight Roy Jones.

Paulie Malignaggi

I don't know why anyone would want to see this, but they do both work for Golden Boy, and I saw some dude on Twitter say (when Malignaggi retweeted it) that Paulie could repeat his performance against Juan Diaz should he face Ortiz. The difference is that Victor Ortiz fights at 165 pounds on fight night, is left-handed, and can punch, but hey, sure. Malignaggi is currently sort-of considering a fight against Vyacheslav Senchenko.

There are also guys out there who would be OK as pure stay-busy fights, guys like Ed Paredes, Joel Julio, Luis Abregu, and Carson Jones (I hate to consider the likeable, solid Jones a "pure stay-busy fight," but on paper it would be).

What about Lucas Matthysse? Look, Humberto Soto isn't going to fight him, no matter what he says he's considering. Matthysse isn't exactly swimming in offers right now, and he's with Golden Boy, too. He could move up. I figure Ortiz vs Matthysse is a hell of a fight.

But what I really hope is that Berto's recovery period is as short as possible, he gets back in it, and we just get the fight that was scheduled.