By Scott Gilfoid: New Matchroom Sport signee heavyweight Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (25-0, 20 KOs) will have an easy first fight with his new promoter Eddie Hearn in facing #9 WBC Malik Scott (38-2-1, 13 KOs) on November 12 at the Salle des Étoiles, in Monte Carlo. Ortiz and Scott will be fighting for the vacant World Boxing Association Inter-Continental heavyweight title. It’s not a great fight though.
Scott, 35, has lost two out of his last four fights in knockout losses to Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder and Dereck Chisora. I’m not sure why Scott is still ranked in the top 10 after losing those fights. You would think that the losses would have knocked Scott out of the top 15 altogether.
On the same card, WBA World bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell (28-2-1, 13 KOs) will be defending his title against #2 WBA Liborio Solis (25-4-1, 11 KOs). The 34-year-old Solis was recently beaten by WBC World bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 117-107, 117-107 and 117-107. I’m not sure why Solis is ranked high after a loss like that. It’s weird. McDonnell, 5’10”, will be making his 5th defense of his title against the 5’4” Solis. The height difference between the two fighters will be immense. McDonnell will have a six inch height and a three inch reach advantage over Solis.
“It is an absolute honor to bring this huge night of world championship boxing to Monaco,” said promoter Eddie Hearn.
Also on the Ortiz-Scott card, WBA World super featherweight champion Jason Sosa (19-1-4, 15 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title against Stephen Smith (24-2, 14 KOs). Smith, 31, is getting another world title shot after losing in a bid last year to win the IBF belt against champion Jose Pedraza by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Smith didn’t have the boxing skills to handle Pedraza’s talent. You have to figure that Sosa, 28, will be even more of a problem for Smith than Pedraza was, because he can punch, and he’s relentless. Smith likes to slug as well, but I don’t think he’s going to be a happy camper on the night when he gets inside the ring with Sosa. This is going to be a real nightmare for Smith, I believe.
Sosa recently defeated WBA champion Javier Fortuna by an upset 11th round knockout last June. Before that, Sosa fought the highly talented former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters to a 12 round draw. Sosa is no joke. This guy can fight. Smith’s only chance of winning the fight is if he stays on the outside and boxes. Smith can’t get caught up in a war with Sosa, because he doesn’t have the power to hurt him or the chin to take his heavy shots.
Believe it or not, Sosa got the better of Nicholas Walters in a slugging match against him last December. In the second half of the fight, Walters was forced to abandon his game plan of trying to score a knockout by switching up to try and box his way to a decision. Walters did a lot better boxing Sosa. However, by the time he made the switch in game plans, the fight was already to the point where Walters needed knockdowns or a knockout to win it.
Smith won his last fight in beating Daniel Eduardo Brizuela by a 7th round knockout last May. However, that wasn’t a world class opponent for Smith, so it doesn’t tell us anything. If
If Smith loses this fight to Sosa, then it’s probably the end of the line for him, or at least it’s going to keep him from getting another world title shot for a while. I can’t see Smith getting yet another title shot in the near future if he loses to Sosa. It would be comical if Smith keeps getting undeserved title shots and he keeps losing. For one, the sanctioning bodies are going to start dropping him from their rankings if he keeps getting whipped. For two, it may raise some eyebrows if Smith is given title shots one after another over arguably more deserving contenders like Nicholas Walters, Bryant Vasquez and Takashi Miura. I see all three of those fighters easily beating Smith. Why then is Smith being given another title shot instead of them? You tell me.
Super middleweight contender Arthur Abraham (45-5, 30 KOs) and Martin Murray (33-4-1, 16 KOs) will be squaring off in a rematch on the Ortiz vs. Scott card. Abraham beat Murray just last year by a 12 round split decision when Abraham was still the World Boxing Organization 168lb champion. Abraham has since lost his title to Gilberto Ramirez last April by a 12 round unanimous decision. You can understand why Murray and Abraham would want to fight each other again, because their fight was a close one a year ago with Abraham barely winning the fight.
Ideally, I think it would have been better for Abraham to move on and look to beat someone else rather than taking his career backwards by fighting the same guy in 34-year-old Murray. What can you do though? at this point, Abraham is old at 36, and he probably can’t beat a lot of the top contenders. He already proved that he can defeat Murray, so I see the rematch as a stay busy fight for him to put himself back in position for a rematch against Ramirez or a title shot against one of the other champions.
Murray’s career is not exactly going well right now. He lost his last fight to George Groves by a 12 round unanimous decision last June. Murray did very little in the fight other than covering up. Groves looked there to be beaten when Murray would let his hands go, but he couldn’t fight in a sustained manner that he needed to for him to win. I’m not sure if there’s a problem with Murray’s engine or what. He’s not going to beat Abraham unless he can stop hiding behind his high guard and throw some actual punches. Murray seems to make the same mistake in fight after fight in spending too much time hiding behind his clam-shell guard rather than letting his hands go and actually fighting.