By Scott Gilfoid: The World Boxing Council has ordered a heavyweight eliminator between Dillian Whyte 23-1, 17 KOs) and former heavyweight world title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) to decide the second mandatory for WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Dominic Breazeale is already Wilder’s WBC mandatory after beating Eric Molina last year in October.
Whyte, 29, might not be so eager to fight in a WBC second mandatory eliminator against a dangerous fighter like the 38-year-old Ortiz, because it would mean that he would have to wait for Breazeale to challenge Wilder first, and then he would still likely need to wait for a year after that before he finally gets a title shot against Deontay.
Whyte has a chance to fight in an IBF title eliminator match against Kubrat Pulev to become IBF champion Anthony Joshua’s mandatory. Whyte and Joshua are with the same promoter Eddie Hearn, so it means that Dillian won’t have to wait nearly as long for a title shot against him compared to against Wilder.
Ortiz was knocked out in the 10th round by Wilder last month on March 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Ortiz had Wilder hurt in the 7th round and close to being knocked out. Just before the start of round 8, the New York Commission checked the badly hurt Wilder over before they allowed the round to start. It looked to some like the seconds that it took for the Commission to check Wilder over allowed him to recover enough to regain his bearings. Wilder was then able to come back and stop Ortiz in the 10th.
“We are very happy to find again a way to fight for the world title,” said Ortiz’s manager Jay Jiménez said to elnuevoherald.com. “We are convinced that Luis will be the winner and he will face another one with Wilder in a match that will be twice as attractive as the first.”
Whyte could gain a lot of attention for himself if he agreed to fight Ortiz, but it wouldn’t increase the speed of him getting a world title shot with Wilder. That fight isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Whyte is better off going after the more beatable Pulev to become the IBF mandatory for a shot at Joshua, who already knocked him out in the 7th round in 2015. That was before Joshua was the huge PPV attraction that he is now. Whyte can make a lot of money fighting Joshua now. It doesn’t matter if he loses the fight. He’ll still get a lot of money.
Whyte might not be able to beat Ortiz. This is a much better heavyweight than the guys that he’s been facing. It would be surprising if Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn were to allow that fight to take place. If Whyte loses, he would have to rebuild his career and Hearn won’t want to go through that. Hearn has done a good job of match-making for Whyte, putting him in against beatable fighters like Dereck Chisora, Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne, Robert Helenius, Malcolm Tann, David Allen, Ian Lewison and Ivica Bucurin.
“Here is an issue between Luis and Wilder that has not been finished, that the public feels it has not ended,” said Jimenez. “People feel that Wilder was helped. Luis will be in better conditions for a rematch.”
Whyte is going to have enough problems as it is trying to beat the 6’4 ½” Kubrat Pulev. He doesn’t need to mix it up with a dangerous southpaw like Ortiz. Whyte has been calling out Wilder for a long time now, but he might not be so eager to take on a tough opponent like Ortiz to earn the title shot. Whyte wants the fight to be given to him by Wilder without having to earn it. If Whyte does take the Ortiz fight, it might not end well for him.