By Tim Royner: A fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) and Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) is in the works for March 3 on Showtime at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The news was announced on Wednesday about the fight. Wilder-Ortiz still hasn’t been finalized yet, but it’s expected to go through.
For all intents and purposes, the March 3 Wilder-Ortiz fight is a rescheduling of their previous November 4 fight date, which was wiped out after the 38-year-old Ortiz tested positive for 2 banned drugs during the pre-testing for the fight by VADA. The fight was then canceled, and Wilder ended up defending his WBC title against his mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne on November 4.
Wilder destroyed Stiverne in a 1st round knockout. In the meantime, the World Boxing Council cleared Ortiz after he informed them that the medications he was using were for his high blood pressure problem.
Ortiz has been cleared to fight in WBC sanctioned fights, and he’s now rated #3 with the organization.
Wilder-Ortiz will have competition from a rival card that will be taking place on HBO, headlined by WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KOs) battling little known Igor Mikhalkin (21-1, 9 KOs), and on the undercard a much better fight between WBA World light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) facing Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KOs) in the co-feature bout. That fight is taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York. Wilder vs. Ortiz having to compete with the Kovalev- Mikhalkin and Bivol-Barrera card on HBO is sad news. Wilder vs. Ortiz is a much better fight than the Kovalev title defense against the 32-year-old Igor, but it’s still not a good deal for Wilder.
Ortiz came back recently after a year out of the ring and obliterated journeyman Daniel Martin by a 2nd round knockout earlier this month on December 8. Ortiz looked good for a 38-year-old fighter coming off a 12-month layoff. I wouldn’t say that Ortiz looked good in general. He didn’t look good. He was impressive for a fighter pushing 40, who had been out of the ring for 1 year. After the fight, Wilder went into the ring and had words with Ortiz. It played out well with the 2 fighters agreeing to face each other. The two agreed to fight each other at the time. Wilder wanted to still fight Ortiz on November 4 after he tested positive last October, but the WBC wouldn’t allow him to do that. But now that Ortiz has been reinstated in the WBC’s rankings, he’s ready to fight him again. We’ve got to hope that Ortiz doesn’t get popped for a third time with the drug testing. He’s already tested positive 2 times during his career for banned drugs.
The way Wilder looked in smashing Stiverne in a 1st round knockout on November 4, it’s going to be hard for Ortiz to survive long against him. The journeyman Martz was nailing Ortiz with shots in the opening minute of the 1st round. If Wilder was throwing same punches, Ortiz likely would have been knocked out immediately. Ortiz looks like he’s aged badly from the fighter that was destroying guys 3 years ago. Ortiz was a much different fighter back in 2014. It just shows you how quickly fighters can age when they get in their late 30s like Ortiz.