Ortiz's Nevada license threatened by headbutts in Mayweather fight - Next

During an interview with RingTV.com on Oct. 13, Ortiz's trainer, Danny Garcia, said that he warned Cortez during the pre-fight instructions in the dressing room that Ortiz would "throw a low blow or a head butt" if they felt it was necessary to retaliate for perceived dirty fighting from Mayweather..

"[Ortiz] headbutted him because I told Joe Cortez right before the fight in the dressing room that might happen. I told him that, 'You're a good referee, you have a lot of experience, and I really like the way that you do your job. But please, please keep in mind that Floyd Mayweather throws a lot with the elbows.' I told him that I don't want a dirty fight, because Victor's going to fight a good clean fight," said Garcia.

"But I told him, 'if you don't take a point from Floyd or something and control his elbows and stop him from fighting dirty, then Victor's going to do something wrong too.' I told him that Victor is going to throw a low blow or a headbutt. I told him that, yes, in front of Victor. Within the first four rounds, Victor was getting hit with elbows two or three times good in the mouth."

Garcia said that he did not instruct Ortiz specifically to head butt Mayweeather at the time that he actually did, but that he was going to tell him to foul Mayweather later on.

"No, I didn't tell him to do that. But I was going to tell him to do that in the next round, or maybe in the sixth, seventh or eighth round if Mayweather was still continuing to use his elbows," said Garcia.

"I was going to tell Victor to do maybe a low blow or to hit him, because that way, he can know that we can be dirty too. But at the time, Victor, he headbutted Mayweather on his own, yes."

Photos by Phil McCarten, Hogan Photos, Golden Boy Promotions

Photo by Tom Hogan, Hogan Photos, Golden Boy Promotions

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com