LOS ANGELES, CMC – Vivian Harris suffered a major setback in his bid to gain a World title fight, when Victor Ortiz knocked him out in their “vicious” non-title, junior welterweight fight on Saturday at the Staples Centre.
In the battle of two fighters that carry the same sobriquet of “Vicious”, the United States-based Harris was battered into submission, when the American ended the fight at 0:45 of the third round with a nasty right to enhance his reputation.
Harris, a former 140lb World champion from Guyana, has been trying to restore his career in a bid to move-up the World rankings, and position himself for a title fight.
But the 32-year-old Harris was manhandled in the scheduled 10-round fight, and again failed to instill any confidence in his ability.
Both fighters circled the ring without landing anything significant in the opening round, but the match took a turn for the worse for Harris, when Ortiz put him on the canvas three times in the second round.
Harris went down to a powerful left-handed shot early in the round before later slumping to a right hook against the ropes, and being floored near the end with another crisp right-handed blow.
The Guyanese was probably still wobbling, when he returned to the middle for the third round, but Ortiz put him to sleep with a solid, inside upper-cut, and the referee spared Harris further punishment.
Harris, a loser in three of his last four decisions, suffered further indignity, when the HBO TV commentary team ripped into him.
Harris, whose record now slips to 29-5-1, was tentative throughout, and only landed nine-of-49 punches in his brief stay in the ring.
Ortiz, whose record improves to 28-2-1, including 22 Kos, has now won two straight via knockout.
The Harris-Ortiz fight was part of the undercard on the programme featuring Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora.
The 12-round main event between two former World junior-middleweight champions ended in an ugly draw.
The scores were 115-113 for Mora, 116-112 for Mosley, and 114-114 for the draw.
