By Patrick McHugh: Interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) will be defending his title against challenger Alexander Ustinov (33-1, 24 KOs) in the co-feature bout on the Liam Smith vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez card in two months from now on September 17.
The Ortiz-Ustinov fight is still being put together by Golden Boy Promotions, but it’s looking very good like the two giant heavyweights will be on the card. It’s important for Golden Boy to have a solid co-feature bout because the fight card will be televised on HBO pay-per-view on 9/17.
Golden Boy is already facing an uphill climb with them signing little known WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith as Canelo’s opponent in the main event. It doesn’t matter that Smith, 27, is a world champion at 154. The fact of the matter is the boxing fans in the U.S, I’m talking about the casual, don’t know who Smith is. Golden Boy might as well have picked anyone in the world for Canelo to fight and it would be the same thing.
Trying to attract fans to see Canelo fight an unknown is going to be hard. That’s why it’s important for Golden Boy to get heavyweight Luis Ortiz for the undercard, because the former Cuban amateur star has quickly built up a nice fan base in the U.S in the short amount of time he’s had his fights televised on HBO.
Ortiz, 37, looked great in his last fight in stopping the sixth round last March. Ortiz knocked the 6’5” Thompson down three times in the fight in dropping him in the 1st, 3rd and 6th. The fight was stopped after Thompson was dropped in the sixth.
The 6’4” Ortiz has been largely the forgotten man among the top heavyweights in the division as of late. The fighters that are getting the most press are Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. If Ortiz can keep winning long enough for him to get a fight against one of those top heavyweights, then he’ll have a great chance of proving that he’s better than them.
Ortiz will probably need to wait a long time before he can get a shot against the likes of Wladimir or Fury. The World Boxing Association can make Ortiz’s life easier by ordering the winner of the Fury-Klitschko 2 fight to face him. Apart from that, it’s not probable that Ortiz will get either of them to fight him.