By Allan Fox: Malik Scott isn’t impressed with unbeaten #1 WBA heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz like many of the casual boxing fans who follow the sport. Scott (38-2-1, 13 KOs) sees a lot of weaknesses that he believes he can exploit when the two heavyweights fight each other next month on November 12 on HBO Boxing After Dark at the Sailes des Etoiles, in Monte Carlo. Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) clearly isn’t as good as many fans and writers believe him to be.
Ortiz’s fighting style is made to order for a big heavyweight with right hand power, speed and stamina. Ortiz is slow, and he walks into shots. He also looks a lot older than his 37-years in this writer’s opinion. Ortiz’s power isn’t as good many of the other heavyweights in the division.
If Ortiz gets into a trading war with a heavyweight with power, he’ll likely lose, because he doesn’t have the defense , youth or stamina to win that kind of war.
Scott isn’t saying what the flaws are that he’s spotted in Ortiz’s game, but it’s likely one of the following things:
– Slow hand speed. If you look Oritz’s fights, he’s very slow of hand. He’s been able to get away with it because he’s never faced a heavyweight with speed as of yet. When that happens, Ortiz could wind up getting exposed like he was during his amateur career.
– No right hand power. Ortiz rarely uses his right hand. It’s hard to believe that Ortiz didn’t develop his right hand during his years in the Cuban National program. You would think that they would have taught him to use his right, but clearly they didn’t. I’m sure they tried, but it looks like Ortiz failed to ever develop his right hand as a weapon. That’s unfortunate because he’s going to need more than a left hand for him to go anywhere in the heavyweight division.
– Poor stamina. This is another area where Ortiz has real problems. He gets tired in his fights, and his opponents are able to hit him a lot. Look at Ortiz’s fight against Bryant Jennings, for example. Jennings pushed a fast pace and had Ortiz looking winded and in bad shape. The fight was pretty even in the 7th when Ortiz got the knockout on an uppercut on the inside. Jennings should have known better than to stay on the inside against Ortiz, because he was allowing him to rest and fight at a slow pace when he went to the inside against him.
– No defensive skills. Ortiz is very easy to hit with shots. He’s usually slow tired looking that he makes it easy for his opponents to nail him with shots.
Malik Scott said this to skysports.com about Ortiz:
“I don’t see perfection. I don’t see invincibility. I don’t see what the casual fans see. It’s my job to take advantage of those loopholes. If I can take advantage of them, he’s going to leave the ring with one loss. If he can take advantage of the things he’s seen in me, then I’ll lose. The best man will win.”
Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn recently signed Ortiz to a contract with his promotional company. He feels like he got a good fighter. He did get a good fighter. However, I’d be very surprised if Ortiz is able to beat Hearn’s other heavyweights Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua. Both of those fighters beat Ortiz. Even Dereck Chisora would be problems for Ortiz if he attacked him ith power shots, and took away his left hand, which is his only true weapon. Chisora beats guys that only use one hand. If all Ortiz has is a left hand against Chisora, he loses.
For Malik Scott to take advantage of Ortiz’s many flaws in his game, he’s going to need to throw shots back at him to stick around long enough to wear him down. Many of Ortiz’s past opponents haven’t been busy enough with their own shots to get his respect. Ortiz has been able to go out and throw one left hand after another at his opponents until he knocks them out. Scott has got to have enough offense to make Ortiz think twice about attacking him.