By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #1 WBA heavyweight contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (26-0, 22 KOs) will face British domestic level fighter David “White Rhino” Allen (9-1-1, 6 KOs) in a scheduled eight round fight on December 10 on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Eric Molina card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The Ortiz-Allen fight will be part of the Sky Box Office pay-per-view card. After all the talk from Ortiz’s new promoter Eddie Hearn about how he was going to find him a good opponent for the December 10 card, he winds up selecting the 24-year-old “Allen as his opponent. I think news for the 37-year-old Ortiz, and equally sad for boxing fans that will be seeing the card.
This is not a good fight. When you match an unbeaten top contender like Ortiz against British domestic level fighter like Allen, it’s a recipe for disaster and disappointment. Allen hasn’t fought since last July when he was EASILY beaten by Dillian Whyte by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision at the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
Using mostly just his right hand, Whyte beat Allen by the scores 99-91, 100-91 and 100-90. Whyte’s surgically repaired left shoulder likely was the reason why he rarely used his left hand in the fight. Never the less, it didn’t matter at all, because Allen wasn’t throwing punches back at him.
Allen was spending much of the fight backed up against the ropes and taking horrible punishment to the head and body from Whyte. To say that the fight should have been stopped at some point is an understatement. I thought the fight, if you want to call it that should have been stopped by the 5th round, because Allen was fighting like a sparring partner and just absorbing punishment without throwing anything back.
Ortiz said this to skysports.com about his fight against Allen on December 10:
“We looked at opponents for December 10 and we wanted someone who will come to fight for the fans,” said Ortiz.
If Ortiz wanted someone who will come to fight, then he shouldn’t have picked Allen, because I don’t think he’s going to come to fight on December 10. Allen looked dreadful in his last fight against Whyte earlier this year. As far as I can tell, Allen looked like he wanted to fight in the 1st round. But after getting hit with several right hands from Whyte, Allen appeared to switch off and play it safe for the remainder of the fight.
Allen went into the sparring partner mode and stopped throwing punches for the remainder of the 10 round fight. I still don’t know why Allen’s trainer didn’t throw in the towel, because if there was ever a fight that begged for a Dominic Ingle type of stoppage, it was that one.
I’m just surprised that Hearn would stick a fighter like Allen in with Ortiz after the performance Allen had in his previous fight. If I were Hearn, I would be afraid to make that move, because I wouldn’t anger the boxing fans. The idea of putting all these big names like Luis Ortiz, Scott Quigg and Callum Smith on the Joshua-Molina fight card is a great one by Hearn. However, it’s no good if they’re fighting guys that totally out of their class.
It’s embarrassing to be honest. Out of the entire fight card, I only see two fights that are competitive on paper, and that’s the match between WBA World super flyweight champion Luis Conception vs. Khalid Yafai, and heavyweight Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte.
Ortiz did not look at all good in his recent fight against Malik Scott earlier this month in winning a 12 round unanimous decision. Ortiz beat Scott by a one-sided unanimous decision and dropped him three times. However, what made Ortiz look so bad was how slow he was in moving around the ring to try and score a knockout over the entirely defensive looking Scott.
Ortiz should have been able to KO Scott, but he couldn’t get to him due to the slow manner that he shuffled around the ring. Ortiz’s slow movements gave the impressive of a fighter much older than his listed age of 37. To me, I thought Ortiz looked more like a fighter around 45. He did not look young in following Scott around at a glacial pace.
The fight was supposed to be a showcase affair for Ortiz in his first match under the helm of his new promoter Hearn. He picked out a guy in Scott, who had been destroyed by the talented Deontay Wilder in one round two years ago in 2014. The idea was that Ortiz would poleaxe Scott in the same manner with a highlight reel KO similar to Deontay’s knockout.
Unfortunately, Ortiz lacked the punching power, and the quick feet to cut off the ring on Scott to get a quick stoppage like the 6’7” Deontay had done. As such, what was supposed to have been an impressive showcase performance for Ortiz turned out to be a poor one with him looking old and not the fighter that boxing fans had thought he was before the fight with Scott.
Before the Ortiz-Scott fight there were fans and people in the media who were giving Ortiz a chance of beating Anthony Joshua and Deontay in the near future to become the top guy in the heavyweight division. That’s how highly Ortiz was rated before the Scott fight. After the fight, the fans and some in the media questioned whether Ortiz is good enough to hang with Ortiz and Deontay. Gilfoid was terribly disappointed in Ortiz, as now sees him as not even the No.5 heavyweight in the division. Ortiz just looks too slow and old to be in the top five at heavyweight.
It’s interesting though how Hearn is matching Ortiz by putting him in with domestic level opposition instead of world class fighters. Malik Scott was a 2nd tier guy, but Allen is a clear step down from Scott. I wonder if Hearn has confidence issues with Ortiz.
Whatever the case, it appears that Hearn is playing it safe by putting Ortiz in fights that are sure thing wins for him in order to make him look good to the British boxing public in order to slowly build up interest in a fight between him and Joshua for the near future. I think Hearn needs to put Ortiz in with the winner of the Whyte vs. Chisora fight. If Ortiz wins that fight, then stick him in with Joshua.
If he loses one or both of those fights, then Hearn needs to move on and look for other heavyweights to sign with his Matchroom stable. Hearn would do well to sign some of the 2016 Olympic heavyweights from Eastern Europe. There were some good ones there, and they’re not pushing 40 like Luis Ortiz. Hearn might be able to turn one of them into a good heavyweight that could be a factor in the division for a decade or so. I doubt that Ortiz will be around fighting 10 years from now. I’m just saying.
Allen does not appear to be intimidated by Ortiz in the least. Here’s what Allen had to say about Ortiz to skysports.com:
“I’m going to make Ortiz look like an old man in there. When he hits me, I’m going to stand there and smile at him,” said Allen. “That fight [Ortiz vs. Malik] showed that the hype isn’t real. Ortiz isn’t Superman – I think he’s on the slide.”
I think it’s obvious that Ortiz is on the slide. All you need do is look at some of his old amateur fights on Youtube when he was fighting for the Cuban national team to see how much slower he is now compared to back then. Ortiz was a good – but not great –amateur fighter. He would get tired when the pace was fast. That’s obviously the way to beat Ortiz. You force him to fight at a very fast pace, and he’ll likely wear down like he used to in the amateurs.