Wilder: Beating Luis Ortiz will make me the most dangerous man in the world

By Boxing News - 02/11/2018 - Comments

Image: Wilder: Beating Luis Ortiz will make me the most dangerous man in the world

By Tim Royner: Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber” Wilder sees his next fight on March 3 against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz as his proving grounds in showing the boxing fans and the top fighters in the heavyweight division that he’s the most dangerous man in the sport.

Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) is perhaps the third best heavyweight in the division today and Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) wants to make a statement by knocking him out. Indeed, Wilder is predicting a 3rd round knockout of the 38-year-old Ortiz when they face each other on Showtime Boxing on the 3rd of March at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Wilder, 32, has visualized the fight in his mind already, as he does all of his contests, and he sees himself going out and making quick work of the 6’4”, 240 pound Cuban heavyweight on the night.

”Beating Ortiz automatically makes me the most dangerous man in the world,” Wilder said to the latimes.com. ”With Ortiz, I’m not worried about anything he can bring. It’s going to be a shock, a surprise to a lot of people.”

It’s certainly going to be more of a shock for the 6’7” Wilder to blast out Ortiz in round 1 to 3 than it was for him to knockout his last opponent Bermane Stiverne in the 1st round on November 4th on Showtime. The 39-year-old Stiverne came into the fight weighing a fat looking 254 lbs. and a 2-year layoff. Stiverne was nothing like the same fighter that had lasted 12 rounds against Wilder in the first fight between them in January 2015.

Stiverne had aged in the nearly 3 years that had elapsed since that fight, and he only fought 1 time since that fight. Wilder’s win over Stiverne didn’t prove anything. It just showed that Wilder could take advantage of an old, fat and inactive fighter. That’s not to say that Wilder can’t do a similar job on Ortiz. The Cuban heavyweight is just as old as Stiverne at 38, and he’s not been fighting a lot. Some people believe Ortiz is in his mid-40s, while others believe he’s in his early 50s. There’s probably no way of ever knowing whether Ortiz is older than his listed age of 38, but what is knowable is that he’s slowed down in terms of his hand speed in his last 3 fights, and he’s not looking like the devastating heavyweight that destroyed Lateef Kayode in 1 round in September 2014.

When you look at that fight and then look at Ortiz’s last match against journeyman Daniel Martz last December, it’s like you’re viewing 2 different fighters. Ortiz has aged since then, and he’s no longer as powerful or as fast. If Ortiz can get back to the fighter that obliterated Kayode, then Wilder is going to be in big trouble on March 3, because that’s a talented fighter that he’s never had to deal with during his pro or his amateur career in boxing. IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has never had to fight a heavyweight with the talent that Ortiz showed against Kayode.

The good news for Wilder is it’s unlikely that Ortiz is going to be able to get back to the form he showed against Kayode. If he could do that, he would have done it already and looked amazing in his last 4 fights against Daniel Martz, David Allen, Malik Scott and Tony Thompson. It seems more likely that the Kayode fight was the last bit of Ortiz’s youth, and he’s now aged to the point where he isn’t the same fighter he once was.

“I have a natural killer instinct. I’m born with it,” Wilder said. “When I smell blood, it’s worse. When the bell rings, you can hurt that man’s body any way you want. A lot of people say I’m sloppy. A lot of people say I’m wild. It ain’t broke. Why fix it?”

Ortiz is most polished big man that Wilder will have faced up to this point in his 10-year pro career. Ortiz is not the tallest fighter that Wilder has taken on. Wilder has knockout wins over 6’7” Kelvin Price, 6’6” Nicolai Firtha, 6’5” Johann Duhaupas, 6’6” Gerald Washington and 6’5 1/2” Audley Harrison. The difference is that Ortiz is a more experienced and far more talented fighter than any of those heavyweights. Ortiz is a former Cuban National champion with an amateur record of 349-19. Ortiz lost to the good heavyweights like Odlanier Solis and Robert Alfonso. Those were talented amateur heavyweights. Both turned pro but neither of them has gone anywhere. Alfonso, 31, is still competing as a pro, but his weight has shot up in the 260s and it doesn’t look like he’s going to go anywhere as a pro unlike Ortiz.

”People can’t grasp why I’m so confident and so dominant … it’s all about me visualizing what I’m going to do. So when it’s time, it’s easy, like I’ve been there before,” Wilder said.

Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) is the heavyweight that Wilder is hoping he can face this year, but it doesn’t look like that will be a reality. Joshua fights on March 31 against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. If he wins that fight, Joshua could face Alexander Povetkin or Tyson Fury next. Jarrell Miller and Dillian Whyte are also possibilities for Joshua. With his fight against Parker, Joshua is finishing out his contract with Showtime Sports. There’s a chance that Joshua will sign with HBO Boxing. If that happens, it’s going to make it hard to make a fight between Joshua and Wilder, who fights on Showtime Boxing.

It’s not to say that a fight between them can’t be made, but it certainly won’t make things easier. Since a fight between Joshua and Wilder wouldn’t a mega-PPV affair like we saw with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in 2015, it makes it more problematic to make a fight in which both networks (HBO and Showtime) televise the Joshua-Wilder fight. There viewing audience will be split with the boxing fans having to choose between HBO and Showtime to watch the Joshua vs. Wilder fight, and it’s not going to be nearly as big ratings than if the fight were to be televised by just one cable network. Joshua isn’t a star in the U.S, and neither is Wilder. That’s not going to change with Joshua’s fights in the UK being piped into the U.S. on Showtime or HBO. The casual boxing fans don’t know who Joshua or Joseph Parker is in the U.S, so there’s not going to be a lot of fans watching that fight.

Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn aren’t willing to make the sacrifice to become a star in the U.S by fighting over there on a regular basis. They would have to sacrifice a lot of money by competing in front of smaller crowds in the U.S compared to what they can get fighting in the UK. Joshua and Hearn don’t appear willing to do that. If Joshua does fight in the U.S, it’ll be 1 fight against someone like Jarrell Miller. Hearn would be hoping that the U.S boxing fans take notice of that fight and get excited about it and tune in for a latter match against Wilder. It’s a superficial way of trying to turn Joshua into a star in the U.S, and it’s not likely going to work. Joshua only fighting once in the U.S against Miller isn’t going to be nearly enough to turn him into a big enough star to make a fight between Joshua and Wilder a PPV worthy affair in 2018 or 2019.