[5] Outside of boxing, Ortiz has had roles in the films The Expendables 3 (2014) and Southpaw (2015), and made a cameo appearance in the TV series Ray Donovan.

In 2003, Lyle guided Ortiz to a Junior Olympics tournament, where, at the age of sixteen, he won the 132-pound weight division with a perfect 5–0 record.

This time, he was noticed by another former boxer, Roberto Garcia, who had held the IBF Super Featherweight Championship during the 1990s and whose father was the trainer of Fernando Vargas.

[12] At age 16, Ortiz won the 2003 Police Athletic League national championships in Toledo,[13] then at seventeen, Ortiz reached the United States Olympic boxing trials in the 132-pound weight class, where he was eliminated in the champion's bracket semifinals[14] (The weight class was instead won by Vicente Escobedo).

His original trainers included Ignacio "Buck" Avilia, Manuel Rios, Antonio Orozco Sr., Juan M. Aldana Jr. and Alfred Ritz.

[18] Following the fight with Alarcon, Ortiz continued to win and had built a record of 18–1–1 as of August 30, 2007, when he fought his first well-known opponent, Emmanuel Clottey of Ghana, in only his second bout scheduled for ten rounds.

[19] Three months later, Ortiz followed up on his victory with another knockout win, this time in the first round of a ten-round bout against former junior welterweight titlist Carlos Maussa of Colombia.

[20] On September 13, 2008, Ortiz fought his first bout scheduled for twelve rounds, against Roberto David Arrieta of Argentina.

On June 27, 2009, Ortiz faced Marcos Rene Maidana (25–1–0) of Argentina in Los Angeles for the Interim WBA Light Welterweight title.

The only previous blemish on his record at that point was a close split decision loss to WBA Champion Andriy Kotelnik.

[27] After recovering from a broken wrist and switching trainers, Ortiz announced his return fight would be on HBO Boxing After Dark.

[28][29] On December 12, 2009, Ortiz bounced back from the defeat he suffered vs Maidana to stop Antonio Díaz, who failed to answer the bell for the seventh round.

[31] On September 18, 2010, Victor faced former WBA Light Welterweight Champion Vivian Harris on the Shane Mosley vs. Sergio Mora undercard at Staples Center.

[33] On the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana, Ortiz faced former title challenger Lamont Peterson on December 11 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

[34] Ortiz fought Andre Berto for the WBC Welterweight title on April 16, 2011, at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket.

The fight, which had been in discussion for weeks, was originally supposed to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on February 11, 2012.

The fight was postponed to June 30, 2012, due to Berto rupturing his biceps in training and being unable to meet the original date.

Although Berto denied having ever taken the substance intentionally, the rematch was cancelled and Light Welterweight Josesito Lopez was chosen to take his place.

In an exciting fight, both fighters repeatedly engaged in competitive exchanges, as opposed to the one-sided bout predicted by many members of the press.

At the beginning of the tenth round, Ortiz's team threw in the towel when the fighter complained of a broken jaw, subsequently cancelling his possible bout with Álvarez.

"[43] Despite the encouragement to retire from his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya, Ortiz fought Manuel Pérez on the undercard of the December 13, 2014, Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander fight.

Ortiz returned on PBC's December 12 preliminary undercard, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, winning via eighth-round TKO over Gilberto Sanchez Leon.

[45] Five years after their first slugfest, Ortiz and Berto (30–4, 23 KOs) finally met in a rematch on April 30, 2016, at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Berto stated after the match that he would be willing to fight Ortiz a third time if he wanted to and then called out WBC Champion Danny Garcia.

[46] On June 28, 2017, a deal was finalized for Ortiz's return bout against Mexican boxer Saul Corral (24-9, 15 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round fight to take place at the Rabobank Theater in Bakersfield, California, on July 30 and would headline a Premier Boxing Champions card.

In round 3, referee Jack Reiss docked a point of Corral after warning him for holding Ortiz's left arm.

It was my first time back in a while and it’s just the beginning.”[48][49] It was first reported on December 29, 2017, that a deal was being worked out for Ortiz to fight fellow former two-weight world champion Devon Alexander (27-4, 14 KOs).

[50] On January 7, 2018, it was confirmed that the bout would take place on February 17 at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, on free-to-air Fox.

[56] On August 23, 2018, PBC announced a special Sunday card would take on September 30 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California.

[66] Ortiz appeared in the sports drama film Southpaw, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, playing a young boxer named Ramone.