Exciting junior welterweight Victor Ortiz steps onto the PPV stage on Saturday when he meets ex-champ Carlos Maussa on the big Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley show at Madison Square Garden.

There has been talk of the 20-year-old from Oxnard, CA, meeting Ricardo Torres for the WBO belt if he gets past Maussa. As always, first things first, and the 36-year-old Colombian is clearly the most difficult opponent yet for the very promising Ortiz.

Everyone knows that Maussa is one of those extremely awkward fighters who throws punches from all angles. Long-armed and lanky, he gets results because more conventional fighters find themselves getting hit by punches when they think they are out of range or when the blows come from unexpected angles. Ortiz, though, is a smart, strong and versatile boxer who punches in a precise and compact manner from out of his southpaw stance.

A pleasant young man outside the ring, Ortiz has lived up to his “Vicious” Victor nickname in several fights, going out to hurt his opponents in a professionally cruel way, as, for instance, he did when knocking out Maximino Cuevas in the first round in June.

He showed his excellent boxing skills in his last fight when dominating useful veteran Emmanuel Clottey. I think that one mark of a special type of fighter is when he faces opponents who look, on paper, like extending him and makes the fights look easy. This is what Ortiz did against Clottey.

I do not think Ortiz will have an easy fight on Friday. Maussa is experienced at the highest level, having fought Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton and of course he knocked out Vivian Harris in a wild fight, but this will be only his second fight in two years and he was clearly outboxed by a crafty Mexican counter puncher, Manuel Garnica, in his last appearance.

Obviously, Maussa will be coming to put pressure on Ortiz, whom he might regard as just an inexperienced kid. I think that he might be surprised, though, by the ability and solid punching of the younger man.

Ortiz, trained by ex-champ Robert Garcia with input from Robert’s very experienced father, Eduardo, has reached the stage where he is ready for the world-class fights. This is his chance to shine against a well-know former world champion, and I think he will take advantage of the opportunity.

Maussa is a rugged, resilient sort but I think that Ortiz can make him miss, punish him and wear him down. I like Ortiz strongly in this fight and I think that he can do enough damage to have Maussa struggling to get through to the final bell in the scheduled 10-rounder.

RESULT: Ortiz KO1.