By Patrick McHugh: WBA interim heavyweight champion Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) will be defending his interim title against #6 IBF, #12 WBC Carlos Takam (33-3-1, 25 KOs) next month on November 12 in Monte Carlo. It should be a good fight.
Ortiz, 37, hasn’t fought since stopping former two time world title challenger Tony Thompson in the 6th round last March. Ortiz is also supposed to fight in December as well.
The Cuban Ortiz was supposed to have fought Alexander Ustinov on the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith card on September 17, but that fight failed to take place. It’s too bad though, because if Ortiz had won, he would have been in position to fight for the full World Boxing Association title.
There are some who believe that Ortiz is the most talented heavyweight in the division right now. It’s too bad that Ortiz hasn’t had the chance to prove it yet by fighting champions Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Ortiz would be a tough match-up for either of those fighters, as he would for anyone in the division.
Ortiz was a very good fighter on the Cuban National team before turning pro six years ago in 2010. Ortiz’s amateur record in Cuba is 319-19.
At 37, Ortiz needs to speed his career up to face the big names before he ages out and loses his talent. It doesn’t appear that the top heavyweights are eager to share the ring with Ortiz. You don’t hear Wilder, David Haye or Joshua mentioning Ortiz’s name too often.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Ortiz never gets a fight against those fighters. Ortiz’s best chance of fighting the big names in the division is for him to win the WBA title as soon as possible. With the WBA title in his possession, Ortiz would have a better chance of eventually fighting one of the top names.
Takam, 35, lost his last fight to unbeaten Joseph Parker by a 12 round unanimous decision last May in an International Boxing Federation eliminator match. The scored were clos with Parker winning by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113.
A lot of boxing fans felt that Takam had done enough to win the fight. However, it appeared to this writer that Parker had done enough to get the decision. Parker should have stood and fought Takam more in a one on one manner rather than using so much movement in the fight. Parker had the better punching power of the two, but he wasn’t willing to stand and trade.
The 6’1 ½”, 241lb Takam could make it tough for Ortiz if he’s able to handle his punching power and southpaw stance. It would be a tough fight if Ortiz can’t get Takam out of there, because he throws a lot of punches and he’s a very busy heavyweight. Ortiz has a nice uppercut that he likes to throw in close, and Takam couldn’t afford to get hit with that shot too many times without going down for the count like he did in his 10th round knockout loss to Alexander Povetkin two years ago in October 2014.
In Ortiz’s last two fights, he’s stopped Bryant Jennings and Tony Thompson. Jennings was giving Ortiz a real fight of it until getting nailed by repeated uppercuts in the 7th round. The fight was then halted.