By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Sport company just got a little richer with the signing of unbeaten World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (25-0, 2 KOs) on Saturday. The former Cuban amateur standout Ortiz, 37, had previously been signed with Golden Boy Promotions in the United States.
Now with the addition of Ortiz to his Matchroom Sport stable, Hearn now has three top heavyweights in IBF champion Anthony Joshua, Ortiz and Dillian Whyte. You would hope that Hearn will match Ortiz against Joshua before the Cuban fighter gets much older.
The southpaw Ortiz is nearing 40, but he’s still in his prime though. There are a lot of boxing fans who believe that Ortiz would destroy the 26-year-old Joshua if the two of them were to face each other right now, which is probably why Hearn isn’t going to let Ortiz anywhere near his golden goose. Joshua is a pay-per-view fighter on Sky Box Office.
If Hearn were to put Joshua in with Ortiz, he might get shipwrecked. I doubt that Ortiz would be adopted readily by the fans to take Joshua’s spot as a PPV fighter, but who knows? I don’t see it though, and I don’t see Hearn letting the talented Ortiz anywhere near Joshua until he’s well over 40 and not as good as he is now.
“Luis Ortiz is one of the most exciting heavyweights in the world and I am delighted to be working with him,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “We plan to keep him very busy and let the fans enjoy his devastating power. Luis is an avoided fighter but we plan on giving him the profile that will make that impossible.”
Ortiz is scheduled to fight on November 12 in Monaco against Carlos Takam. However, it’s unclear whether that particular fight will be taking place. There’s news that Takam will be fighting Johann Duhaupas instead of Ortiz. Hearn says that Ortiz will be fighting in November, but it’s unclear who that’ll be against.
With Ortiz sitting at the top of the WBA’s rankings, you would hope that he would be fighting a top level contender instead of being pulled back to fight British domestic level fighters. That wouldn’t be fair to the 37-year-old Ortiz. He’s only got a short window to make something happen with his career, and it would be a pity if Hearn has him wasting his time fighting domestic level non-contenders. If Hearn wants to put Ortiz in with a fringe contender like Dillian Whyte, I think that would be a slightly interesting fight. I mean, it would be a mismatch right now, because Whyte’s left hooks seems to be missing in action ever since he had shoulder surgery last December. Whyte is mostly just using his right hand to do all the punching in his fights. The problem is Whyte doesn’t have the punching power in his right hand to dominate. We just saw Whyte struggle to beat Ian Lewison last Friday night on the Ricky Burns vs. Kiryl Relikh card at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. If Whyte gets thrown into the ring with Ortiz, it would be a slaughter in my opinion, because Ortiz has knockout power in both hands, and he wouldn’t get tired after two rounds like Lewison did last Friday. I think Ortiz would bat Whyte around the ring like a baseball until finishing him off. That’s why I doubt Hearn would feed Whyte to him. I get the impression that Hearn is saving Whyte for an eventual rematch against Joshua at some point. Until that fight happens, I see Hearn matching Whyte softly against beatable opposition.
“First stop for ‘King Kong’ will be announced on Monday on a huge card in November and then we plan to get him out in the UK straight after, potentially on the Anthony Joshua card,” said Hearn about Ortiz. “I’m very excited to work with our first international fighter, as we continue to expand into new markets.”
Ortiz wants a world title shot be against Joshua or whoever. WBA/WBO champion Tyson Fury appears to be about to be stripped of his titles. However, Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko could go after the WBA strap, while Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr. go after the WBO title. Ortiz could fight the winner of one of those fights if Hearn wants to give him the green light to do that, and if he can get one of those sanctioning bodies to allow that to happen.
It’s weird how Ortiz is the interim WBA champion, and yet he’s not fighting for a title. Ortiz has been the interim WBA belt holder for TWO years. How do you hold the interim belt for two years and not get a world title shot? I don’t understand it at all. Ortiz should have already fought either Klitschko or Fury for the WBA strap.
The way I see it, Hearn is going to keep Ortiz and Joshua in separate lanes from each other rather than throwing them in together. By having them go on different paths, Hearn will have two money streams to bring in the sweet cash instead of one. For example, if Hearn puts Joshua in with Ortiz, we could see Joshua get smacked around the ring by the talent.
Subsequently, Joshua’s once promising career would be imploded in the process, and he would slowly sink down into the murky depths of the ocean. Ortiz would be the new top dog for a while until he ages out. I guess Joshua could be rebuilt, but you never know how a loss like that would impact him mentally. You also don’t know how the boxing public would think about Joshua after he loses to Ortiz. Will the fans come back after Joshua is rebuilt or will they see him as the guy that was blown out by Ortiz? I don’t think Hearn is going to risk it.
Ortiz is like a live grenade. You don’t want to mess with him at all, because he could explode on you and leave your career in tatters. I think Hearn is going to keep matching Joshua against guys like fringe contender Dominic Breazeale and take it really carefully with him. Joshua brings in pay-per-view money even when he fights bottom feeders. He doesn’t need to be matched against talented heavyweights for him to make money. Joshua is like the Saul Canelo Alvarez of the UK. That’s why I don’t see Hearn taking any chances with his golden goose by putting him in with Ortiz.