By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) says he’s ready to make an example of unbeaten contender Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) on March 3rd in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wilder will be displaying his talent against Ortiz on Showtime Boxing on the 3rd of March. This is one of the better opponents Wilder has had since he captured the WBC title 3 years ago in January 2015. There haven’t been a lot of good options for Wilder to defend his title against until now.
Wilder would have defended against Ortiz last year if he hadn’t tested positive for 2 banned drugs. Wilder also had a fight fall through against Alexander Povetkin in 2016 after he tested positive for a banned drug as well. Wilder has not had the best of luck when it comes to him making defenses for his WBC belt.
Wilder, 6’7”, wants to beat the stuffing out of the 38-year-old Ortiz to put a scare into the other top contenders and champions in the heavyweight division. But what Wilder doesn’t recognize is he could scare off the fighter that he wants to face in IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn might drag his feet if Wilder looks too good in dispatching the former Cuban amateur star Ortiz. Hearn has possible other candidates for Joshua’s next fight after his March 31st unification match-up with Joseph Parker.
If Hearn decides that Wilder fight can marinate longer, he may decide to wait until 2019 or longer to setup the Joshua-Wilder fight. Deontay needs to be cognizant of the fact that if he looks a little too good against Ortiz, he could he hurting himself in the process.
“Luis Ortiz you about to go down,” he added. “I’m going to use you as an example for the rest of them,” Deontay said to skysports.com.
Hearn is like a dog that won’t let go of an old bone with his interest in matching his fighter Dillian Whyte against Wilder. Despite Wilder letting Hearn know that the asking price for him to fight Whyte is $7 million, he’s not giving up on wanting to make the fight. Whyte is facing former WBA champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne on March 24. If Whyte, 29, wins that fight, he’ll be Wilder’s WBC mandatory challenger. Wilder won’t have a say so whether he wants to defend against Whyte or not.
Once the World Boxing Council orders for him to defend against Whyte, he’ll have to comply. Hearn says the reason why he wants Wilder to fight Whyte is for 2 reasons: To either help create interest in a Joshua-Wilder unification fight or to have a rematch between Joshua and Whyte be a much bigger fight. It works out well for Hearn either way. If Deontay beats Whyte with flying colors, then it makes the Joshua-Wilder fight a little bit larger in the UK. It works well for Hearn if Whyte beats Wilder as well. Hearn can then make a nice Matchroom Sport in house fight between Joshua and Whyte.
“People say you got skill, people say you got will, they say you King Kong, the boogeyman as well. All of these things they relay you as, but the Bronze Bomber is going to beat your a**,” Wilder said.
Ortiz has the power and the boxing talent to give the 32-year-old Deontay some problems on March 3. What could prevent Ortiz from using his skills are Wilder’s youth, speed and big right hand. Wilder is a lot faster than Ortiz. The fight is coming at the wrong point in Ortiz’s career. Had Ortiz faced Wilder back in 2014, he’d have a lot better chance of winning. Right now, it might be a little bit too late in the game for Ortiz. He’s looking like he’s in his mid to late 40s now, and that is not a good age for him to be taking on a fighter that is in the prime of his career like Wilder right now. Moreover, Ortiz is no longer looking as dominating as he was in 2014. A lot can change with a fighter in 4 years. When you start getting old, as we’re seeing with Ortiz, the speed disappears and you’re left with a slow, lumbering, easy to hit fighter that could be an easy mark for a KO artist like the Bronze Bomber.
If Wilder weren’t a heavyweight champion, the top contenders and champions would probably ignore him permanently. That’s just how it is in boxing. Fighters avoid the dangerous guys unless there’s a good reason to fight them like the money they can make.
To make a statement against Ortiz, Wilder is going to need to come out with the same mean intentions as he did in his last title defense against Bermane Stiverne in their fight on November 4th. Wilder didn’t bother with a feeling out period in the 1st round. He came out with both guns blazing in dropping Stiverne with huge shots. That performance surprised a lot of people in the boxing world because they expected the Wilder-Stiverne fight to be a long 12 round affair like their previous fight in 2015. The difference in the rematch was Wilder didn’t have a broken right hand like he did in the first fight, and he wasn’t forced to jab to protect his injured limb.
The undercard of the Wilder-Ortiz fight is well represented for the March 3rd card with unbeaten former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) competing or the interim WBC middleweight belt against Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-1, 14 KOs) Charlo wants to be the guy that the boxing fans are talking about after the night is over. Charlo wasn’t able to show his skills fully in his last fight against an injured Jorge Sebastian Heiland last July after the Argentinian fighter suffered a leg injury. Charlo easily stopped Heiland in the 4th round in a non-competitive fight. Heiland was limping even in the 1st round. Against Centeno Jr., Charlo will have an opportunity to show off his ability, and earn a fight against the winner of the Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez fight.