Luis Ortiz possible for Canelo-Khan undercard

By Boxing News - 02/23/2016 - Comments

Image: Luis Ortiz possible for Canelo-Khan undercardBy Dan Ambrose: If interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz (24-0, 21 KOs) can get past Tony Thompson (40-6, 27 KOs) in their fight next month on March 5, then he’ll be added to the May 7, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Amir Khan card on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 36-year-old Ortiz just needs to make sure he has no slip ups in his fight against Thompson in order to get on the Canelo-Khan card. Ortiz isn’t expected to have any problems beating the soon to be 45-year-old Thompson, but you never know. The 6’5” Thompson is one of those tall heavyweights that give lots of fighter’s problems with his high work rate, huge frame, and his southpaw stance.

It wouldn’t be surprising at all if Ortiz struggles with Thompson as well, especially if he sets a fast pace and takes him to the deeper rounds. Since his amateur days, Ortiz has struggled in fights where he’s been forced to fight hard for a full three minutes. Ortiz does better when he can fight at a slow and measured pace like he did in his last fight against Bryant Jennings last December. Ortiz won that fight by a 7th round stoppage.

Ortiz vs. Thompson will be televised on HBO and will be taking place at the DC Armory in Washington, D.C.

“We’re looking at possibly having ‘King Kong’ on the card if everything goes well in March,” said Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya to ESPN.com. “This is the best heavyweight on the planet today and we want to keep him extremely busy and force the top heavyweights to fight him.”

Ortiz is a good fighter, but I doubt that he’s the best heavyweight on the planet. The 6’4” Ortiz is a good fighter, but he has a short shelf life because he’s getting up there in age at 36, and he looks a lot older than his given age in my view. Ortiz may be 36, but he looks to me to be in his mid-40s. I don’t know how much longer Ortiz will be able to fight at a high level before he starts showing signs of age. He’s already a lot slower than he was when he fought in the amateur ranks in Cuba.

Having Ortiz on the Canelo vs. Khan card will be a good thing but only if Golden Boy Promotions can find a good opponent for him. They had problems finding the 44-year-old Thompson for him, and he’s little more than a fringe contender. The only way it benefits the Canelo-Khan card to have Ortiz on it is if Golden Boy can find a good opponent for the 235lb Ortiz to fight. If they drag out another 40-ish heavyweight like Thompson for him to fight, then I think it won’t benefit the card. Golden Boy needs to get a good contender for Ortiz for it to help the Canelo-Khan card.

Ortiz won’t be the co-feature bout. Instead, De La Hoya wants to put the recently knocked out Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) against Mauricio Herrera (22-5, 7 KOs in the co-feature. It’s a decent fight. Both guys are moving up from the light welterweight division. Neither of them figure to make any real waves at 147. Herrera doesn’t hit hard enough, and Matthysse is too short.

“We’re very close to getting Matthysse-Herrera done,” De La Hoya said.



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