• Welterweight

Brook gunning for Ortiz

ESPN staff
June 22, 2012
Kell Brook meets Carson Jones on July 7 © Lawrence Lustig
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Kell Brook has reinforced the message he is going after the top names at welterweight by expressing a desire to get his hands on Victor Ortiz.

Ortiz will attempt to win the vacant WBC Silver title against Josesito Lopez in Los Angeles on Saturday, having surrendered the regular WBC crown to Floyd Mayweather Jr in September 2011.

And he could be set to meet Brook, the unbeaten Brit, at some point in the near future. Although Brook is expected to get a shot at the IBF title if he overcomes Carson Jones next month, he is also ranked in the WBC's top ten - and that means Ortiz could be an option.

"These two fighters [Ortiz and Lopez] are in my division so I'll be watching this fight," Brook told Sky Sports. "They're up there at the elite level and Ortiz always brings excitement when he fights so it should be a good one.

"But he's a strange character, Ortiz. He quit in the Marcos Maidana fight [in 2009] and said something like 'I'm too young for this', but he showed when he boxed Andre Berto last year that he has got heart.

"That fight was a cracker. Ortiz came up from light welterweight to Berto's weight and they both hit the canvas before Ortiz won on points to get the WBC belt. I didn't expect that performance from him. Berto is an all-round very good fighter. I thought Ortiz would fold but he got up off the canvas and won. There was talk of me fighting him soon - and I'm licking my lips at that."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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