By Patrick McHugh: The undercard of the September 17th fight between World Boxing Organization junior middleweight champion Liam Smith and Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez won’t have the heavyweight fight between WBA interim champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz vs. Alexander Ustinov on the undercard, because the two of them weren’t able to negotiate a fight, according to Fight News. This is a real disappointment for boxing fans, because the Ortiz-Ustinov fight have been the most exciting match-up on the card, which will be taking place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
It’s unknown where Ortiz and Ustinov go from here. The winner of that fight would have been in a great position to challenge for the winner of the October 29 fight between IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko.
Ortiz, 37, figures to emerge as the overall champion when the dust clears. He would then look to fight IBF champion Anthony Joshua and WBC champ Deontay Wilder to win the last two belts not in his possession.
The next move will be the World Boxing Association’s, because they’re the ones that mandated the Ortiz-Ustinov fight to take place. Do they strip Ortiz and have two other heavyweights fight for the interim strap or to do they let Ortiz just sit and wait for the winner of the Fury vs. Klitschko fight.
Ortiz has looked sensational in his last two fights in beating Tony Thompson and Bryant Jennings. The 6’4″, 242lb Cuban Ortiz showed boxing skills in his last fight against Thompson that were similar to Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali. Ortiz was constantly giving different looks with his game and looking very impressive with everything he did. Ortiz seems to have incorporated the skills of many of the best greats and he’s able to do it perfectly. He looks very hard to beat right now. The only thing that Ortiz has working against him right now is time. He’s up there in age at 37, and he clearly doesn’t have a lot of time to make his mark in the heavyweight division. If he can hold the form that he has right now, then might be able to accomplish big things in the boxing world. However, it’s very likely that he’ll be avoided like the plague by the other heavyweight champions. Wilder and Joshua don’t seem interested in fighting Ortiz. Perhaps that will change if he can take the WBA belt from the winner of the Fury vs. Klitschko fight.