By Allan Fox: Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) says he was robbed last Saturday night in his fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) by the referee David Fields. Ortiz says Wilder was given more time to recover at the start of the 8th round by the referee delaying the start of the round to have Wilder’s face inspected.
Wilder wasn’t cut, so Ortiz doesn’t understand why the referee instructed him to walk over to the ringside doctor to have his face examined. Wilder was staggering when he came off his stool to begin the 8th round. Wilder had been badly hurt by Ortiz in the 7th, and he had barely made it through the round.
The referee choosing to delay the start of the 8th round to have Wilder’s face inspected, it gave him a few extra precious seconds to recover from been hurt. Ortiz thinks the referee was signed by someone with “deep pockets” to have his face inspected. Ortiz sees it as a move by them to allow Wilder to recover so he could win the fight.
Ortiz says he wants a rematch with Wilder, because he was robbed in plain daylight.
Here’s what Ortiz said on his social media site about the referee giving Wilder more time before starting round 8:
“Please, let’s start reposting this everything. Had to post this that a fan sent us through dm and not taking nothing from Bronze Bomber. He’s a bad mother [expletive] and he came out like let’s go, but his promoters or someone has deep pockets made a signal to the lowlife referee. Again, not Wilder, but someone with interest in him winning. Remember Wilder sure gets paid, but not more than the promoters,” Ortiz said.
The referee David Fields should have looked at Wilder’s face and noticed that he wasn’t cut. There was no point in the referee delaying the start of round 8 to have Wilder’s face examined. The delay in starting the 8th round might have given Wilder enough time to recover, because he was staggering when he came off his stool and initially directed to go to the far corner by the referee David Fields. After Wilder walked to the corner, he was then directed by the referee to have his face examined. There was a lot of wasted time before round 8 started.
”We feel we deserve a rematch and only if Anthony Joshua doesn’t take Wilder, we really should and deserve a rematch,” Ortiz said. ”After seeing this, this was a robbery in plain day and it really was an epic battle of Godzilla vs. King Kong #Wilder-Ortiz2 or let’s have a UK vs. USA old school showdown. Let Wilder get his belts, which he deserves and let’s do Wilder-Joshua and Luis vs. Whyte in same card in the UK. GB vs. US @eddiehearn. Think the fans will go insane ##WildervsJoshua #OrtizVsWyte,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz couldn’t knock Wilder out in the 8th round because he was too tired from having expended a lot of energy in the 7th. Wilder was still hurt when the 8th round began, but Ortiz was fighting on fumes at that point and unable to finish the job the way he needed to.
Wilder hasn’t said anything about giving Ortiz a rematch and neither has promoter Lou Dibella. If Ortiz is going to get a rematch with Wilder, he’s going to have to hound him night and day to try and pressure him to give him the fight. Wilder might not be interested in that fight, even though a lot of boxing fans would probably prefer to see him fight Ortiz again than to see him going back to fight weak opposition like he’d been doing since he won the WBC belt from Bermane Stiverne in 2015.
I like the idea of Ortiz fighting Dillian Whyte, but I don’t think his promoter Eddie Hearn will fancy it. Hearn wouldn’t let Joshua fight Ortiz. I don’t think he would be willing to risk one of his lesser heavyweights like Whyte against the Cuban fighter. Even if Hearn gave a green light for an Ortiz-Whyte fight, Whyte would likely speak up and block the fight. After all, Whyte is trying to get a big money rematch with Joshua. Whyte was knocked out in the 7th round by Joshua in 2015. Whyte didn’t make the huge money from the Joshua fight that he could make now. Whyte could get retirement money fighting Joshua, which is why I don’t think he’ll accept a fight with Ortiz. Whyte is fighting 38-year-old Lucas Browne next on March 24th, but he’s not the same kind of talent that Ortiz is. It’s a winnable fight for Whyte against Browne. Ortiz is a different story though. He’d be a handful for Whyte, and he might even knock him out. Whyte doesn’t have the same size that Wilder has to avoid Ortiz’s left-hand power shots.
