Matt Ortega

Ortegas are all over the internet. Take for instance my older brother, Mario Ortega, Jr., who is a quality boxing reporter for 15rounds.com.

His latest piece — on the crushing victory by the new lightheavyweight champion Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36KOs) over David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs) in Las Vegas, Nevada this past weekend — was picked up by CBS Sports.

Mario blogged fight week and reported from ringside where no fight, no matter how small, goes unnoticed.

I find my way to the media tables to look for my seat. I expect to be back a bit, since I am a newcomer, but I am pleasantly surprised. I am third row, just to the right of Doug Fischer and Alan Massengale, who are getting ready to do the internet broadcast of the undercard. Just about no one is there yet. Nonito Donaire’s fiancée Rachel spots me and sits in the seat to my left for a bit. She must be a real boxing fan, as other than Fischer, Massengale and I, she seems to be the only other person watching the fight. Since I got it covered, Swann decides he will arrive a bit later. With the arena so empty, watching the first fight is like watching a television broadcast, since I can hear the commentators to my left crystal clear. As when I watch on TV, I try not to let their commentary effect my perception of the fight.

Last year, I was able to join him for fights in Tucson, Reno and San Jose while he reported on the bouts. It was at the fight at the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson fifteen months ago that his career in the business ever got started. Mario writes:

Frauenheim, of the Arizona Republic newspaper based out of Phoenix, is one of the premiere writers in the business and has been covering boxing for years. I met Norm and our own Bart Barry in March of last year, before I became a fight writer, at the Desert Diamond Casino. I was in town visiting my brother Matt and dragged him to see Jhonny Gonzalez defend his WBO Bantamweight title against Irene Pacheco. Afterwards we bumped into Norm and Bart at the bar and I struck up a conversation with them and fellow boxing writer Phil Woolever. I mentioned I was interested in pursuing boxing writing. They all warned me that it was not the most lucrative racket, but were nice enough to hand me their business cards and share some stories from the road. Bart asked me to email him something I wrote, which I later did. I sent him a link to piece I wrote on a message board about my great uncle Johnny Ortega, who had fought in the 1950’s. He gave me some feedback, passed that link on to Marc and I was brought on board.

It is a source of pride for me to know that I was there when his career in the business first took off.

Years ago, as kids, our family often would gather with family friends or my aunt and uncle in near by Castro Valley to watch championship fights on pay-per-view, including the infamous “Bite Night.”

For each card, he was camped out in front of the television, attentively watching each fight, learning the sport from the greats (and, let’s be honest, even the not-so great down-ticket fighters, too) of the day. Often times, I grew restless and would find other things to occupy my attention until a fighter I recognized stepped into the ring.

But he is truly dedicated to the sport and always has been. Fights and boxing-related specials ran on near loop in our apartment back home in California. It was through him that I grew to love the sport. The introduction to the sport’s history, the stories, the athleticism and skill, not to mention my family’s connection to the sport, made for a quick conversion.