By Allan Fox: Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) says he looked into Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder’s eyes and he saw fear, and he now knows he’s going to beat him and take his WBC heavyweight title from him on Saturday on March 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The face off between Wilder and Ortiz was intense with a lot of anger from both guys.
Ortiz says Wilder’s biggest flaw is he talks too much, but he feels he does this because he’s afraid. Wilder knows he has a lot to lose if he gets beaten on Saturday, Ortiz says. Wilder did look intimidated during his face off with the 38-year-old Ortiz at the final press conference. It wasn’t the same Wilder that we saw going into his fights with Bermane Stiverne, Gerald Washington and Chris Arreola. This time, Wilder has a look of worry on his face for the first time. That doesn’t mean Wilder will lose the fight though. Plenty of excellent fighters look worried and less than confident during their stare down with their opponents, and yet they still go out and easily win.
“Deontay is scared. He’s talking a lot of nonsense. He’s worried about what I’m going to do. This is my time. I’m going to show everyone,” Wilder said. “I looked into his eyes and I knew that I’m not going to lose this opportunity.”
Ortiz wants to become the first Cuban heavyweight champion of the world. Great Cuban heavyweights Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon never turned pro. Had they fought at the pro level it’s likely they would have captured world titles at some point. If Ortiz wins world title on Saturday, he’s become the first Cuban heavyweight world champion, but you can’t say that he’s a better fighter than Savon and Stevenson. Those 2 were very special heavyweights, and they accomplished much more at the amateur level than Ortiz. There’s no comparison. Ortiz was not as talented as those 2. He could win a world title, and that would make him the first Cuban to win the heavyweight.
Ortiz will need to bring his A-game to win this fight though. Wilder, 6’7”, is going to be using his jab and long reach to control the action from the outside. Ortiz isn’t the fastest guy. If he throws one of his slow left hands, Wilder will have the opportunity to counter him with a straight right. Ortiz getting knocked off balance by one of Wilder’s shots will lead to a flurry of big punches from him. That could end badly for either guy. Ortiz will need a good chin for him to take Wilder’s best shots.
Ortiz, 6’4”, is standing in the way of Wilder getting a unification fight against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. That’s the fight that Wilder has his eyes on in the future. Wilder wanted to take the dangerous fight against the Cuban Ortiz so he could prove himself to the boxing world, who haven’t given him credit as a champion since he won the WBC belt 3 years ago. The one reason for that is Wilder’s management hasn’t matched him up against good opposition. He’s been put in with largely bottom dwellers in the heavyweight rankings. The guys that were ranked highly at the time Wilder fought them, Bermane Stiverne and Atur Szpilka, had no business being there.
”I’m going to be the first Cuban and the first Latino born outside the country to win a title. Saturday night will be historic,” Ortiz said. ” I’m going to win and I’m going to take his belt. Deontay’s biggest mistake is that he talks too much. I’m going to make the most of my chance and knock Deontay Wilder out,” Ortiz said.
Up until now, Ortiz’s management hasn’t matched him against the best fighters for some reason. Ortiz hasn’t been given the same opportunities that we’ve seen with Anthony Joshua, whose promoter was able to setup fights between him and Wladimir Klitschko and Charles Martin. If Ortiz was given those fights on a silver platter, he might be the IBF/WBA heavyweight champion today. Joshua has had it easy with the fights he’s been put in. Instead of Ortiz getting fights against Wladimir and Martin, he’s been matched against Lateef Kayode, Tony Thompson, Bryant Jennings, Malik Scott and Dave Allen. Ortiz stopped all but Scott. He couldn’t put Scott away for some reason. That’s the same fighter that Wilder knocked out in the 1st round in March 2014. Ortiz was too slow on his feet to cut off the ring to take out Scott, although he did drop him 3 times in the fight.
Ortiz has to find more speed somewhere on Saturday if he wants to hurt Wilder and knock him out. The way things look now, Ortiz is going to be too slow to do a job on Wilder, and he could end up either getting knocked out by him or losing a one-sided 12 round decision. If the fight goes the distance, it’s unlikely Ortiz will be able to win a decision, because he’s not tall and quick enough to win rounds against Wilder if he can’t knock him down.
“This is not a video game. This is not using controllers. You have to actually step into the ring with me on Saturday night,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz doesn’t like being trash talked by Wilder. That much is clear, but that’s how Deontay does things in the lead up to his matches. He trash talks his opponents to get the boxing fans excited, and also to get motivated for the fights. He’s not winning because he’s mentally breaking down his opponents. Deontay wins because of his punching power. Ortiz might find out or himself on Saturday that it’s not easy taking Wilder’s big power shots, because he hits hard.
Ortiz needs to get toe Wilder early for him to have a chance of winning the fight. If Wilder is able to tee off on Ortiz in the first 4 rounds of the fight, he’ll have a great chance of winning the fight by a knockout. Ortiz should be thinking of getting off the blocks as fast as he can so he can get to Wilder before he connects with one of his big shots.
Wilder will need to go back to square one if he gets beaten by Ortiz. He won’t get the unification fight with Anthony Joshua, and he can forget about a fight with Tyson Fury. Neither of those fights will happen for Wilder if he loses to Ortiz.
