By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s interested in matching IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua against Luis Ortiz in 2017 IF the fight is a big enough one to make. Hearn recently signed the 37-year-old Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) to his Matchroom stable last week, and he would like to turn him into a world champion and star.
The only way for Hearn to do that is to match the Cuban heavyweight Ortiz against Joshua unless he can arrange a title shot for him against WBC champion Deontay Wilder or against the winner of the Joseph Parker vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. for the WBO belt.
Right now, Hearn is talking about putting the 6’4’ Ortiz in with Joshua in 2017. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. I can’t see the fight happening anytime soon. I do think the Joshua-Ortiz fight will happen once Ortiz starts looking like he’s over-the-hill, and no longer a threat to beating the 6’6” Joshua. I think the southpaw Ortiz is a better fighter than Joshua right now.
Hearn probably realizes that, which is why he’s not talking about matching Joshua against Ortiz in definite terms. He’s being iffy about it. That tells me there’s fear there with Hearn, because if he puts his flagship golden goose fighter Joshua in with Ortiz fight now, he could be plucked clean by the Cuban. Hearn would then be left with an aging Ortiz, and a fighter that needs to have his career rebuilt from the bottom up in Joshua. It might take years to rebuild Joshua if he gets whipped by Ortiz. I doubt that the British boxing public will want to pay to see Joshua fight once he loses to Ortiz.
Hearn said this to skysports.com about matching Joshua against Ortiz:
“Luis Ortiz against Joshua could be a huge fight for 2017 and we have no problem in making that fight if it is the right move.” People get the impression that AJ is mollycoddled, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Look at the [Charles] Martin fight, everyone looks back and says it was an easy fight, but at the time they were saying it was a hard fight that was coming too early.”
What is Hearn blabbering about? I don’t know of anyone who thought Charles Martin had a chance to beat Joshua. Martin was just some flawed heavyweight that had won the IBF title after his smaller opponent Vyachaslav Glazkov suffered a leg injury. This is the same Glazkov that fought to a controversial 10 round draw against Malik Scott in 2013. Joshua’s fight against Martin didn’t prove that Hearn isn’t selectively matching Joshua. That was a mismatch on paper. Hearn putting Joshua in with fringe contender Dominic Breazeale for his first defense of his IBF title is another example of soft match-making for Joshua.
Ortiz will be fighting for the first time under the Matchroom Sport banner next month against Malik Scott on November 12 at the Salle des Etoilles in Monte Carlo. Hearn wants to have Ortiz fight on the undercard of Joshua’s fight against Wladimir Klitschko for whenever that fight happens. Ortiz will then fight in early 2017. You can bet that Dillian Whyte will figure into Ortiz’s future. Hearn will likely throw Whyte inside the ring with Ortiz to see what happens. I don’t think it’ll be a pretty picture.
Ortiz is like a T-Rex, and he’ll tear Whyte apart in a one-sided match. After that, I think Hearn lose all interest in having Joshua fight Ortiz for the foreseeable future until Ortiz starts aging. This is all so predictable for Gilfoid. I can see it all. I hope I’m wrong, but I think I know Hearn as well as the back of my hand. He’s not going to risk his golden goose Joshua against a talent like Ortiz until the Cuban is 100% over-the-hill in my view. At that point, Hearn will build up the fight like it’s a big deal and make a big production of it, as if Joshua is taking a real risk against the 40+ year old Cuban. That’s when I see the fight happening, when Ortiz is in his 40s, and totally harmless to Joshua. Right now, Ortiz is 37, so we’re probably looking at a few years at the minimum before Hearn lets Joshua fight him.
“If the reward is there to take the risk against Ortiz, who is very dangerous, and the fight is big enough, then yes, let’s do it,” said Hearn.”We want to build the profile of Ortiz so he can’t be ignored and get him in a high value position so he can get these big fights against the best heavyweights out there.”
Gosh, Hearn is so, so transparent for Gilfoid to read. It’s not even funny. Honestly, I’m not holding my breath waiting for Hearn to allow Joshua to fight Ortiz.