By Barry Holbrook: In six days from now, the WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) will be looking to pull a repeat knockout of the Cuban knockout artist Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs).
Wilder says he wants to finish the wily southpaw Ortiz in neater and far quicker fashion this time around compared to last time they fought in March 2018.
That was far from an easy fight for Wilder, who came close to being knocked out in round 7 of the contest. Wilder ran into a right hand from Ortiz, and it was all he could do to survive the round.
Wilder will be putting his World Boxing Council heavyweight title on the line against Ortiz on November 23 on Fox Sports PBC Pay-Per-View at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The PPV broadcast event begins at 9:00 p.m., ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Deontay wants to KO Ortiz faster in rematch
“My job is to apply as much pain as possible, and I love it,” said Wilder. “This time I want to establish more things that I wasn’t able to do in the first fight. Maybe look a little bit cleaner. I want to establish my jab a little bit more to get in position. So that when I do hit him with the right hand, he goes down earlier.
“Of course, my goal is to always knock my opponent out in sensational fashion. It’s going to be an amazing fight for sure. People are going to get their money’s worth like they got the first time. They know what to expect this time around. Whether it’s quicker or later, that’s the excitement of it. We don’t know, and that’s why you got to be there. It’s boxing,” said Wilder.
A year and a half ago, Wilder says he was ill with the flu when he battled Ortiz on March 3, 2018 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Despite being ill, Wilder looked powerful in knocking Ortiz to the canvas in round 5, and twice more in round 10 to get a knockout win. However, Wilder was tentative in the first four rounds, and he looked like he was afraid to let his hands go.
Wilder wasn’t using his jab often in the fight, and it made it harder for him to connect cleanly when he would load up with right hands. There was a lot of missed punches by Wilder, and looked uncoordinated at times. It was lucky for Wilder that Ortiz didn’t counter him with one of his hard left hands, because he might not have seen the second half of the fight if he did.
Deontay: I can end this in 2 seconds
“When I fight guys, they’re going to bring their ultimate A-game because of what I possess and that’s power, most of all,” said Wilder to INSIDE PBC BOXING. “So they’re going to train, get the proper training, and try to bring guys in to try and get a game plan to beat me. When guys fight me, they have to be prepared for 12 rounds.
“I only have to be prepared for two seconds. That’s something I’m blessed with. Going in a second time with a guy [Ortiz] that already gave his all. I mean, what are you going to make better? The same thing you did before? It was the same thing with Stiverne. I knew him. You gave me 12 rounds of everything. As for me, I can get better,” Wilder said.
Wilder tends to get better in his rematches with opponents, and he’s counting on being able to improve on his previous performances against Ortiz. It took Wilder to the 10th round before he stopped Ortiz. This time, Wilder wants to knock him out in the first half of the fight.
Since his win over Ortiz, Wilder has fought Tyson Fury and Dominic Breazeale. His fight with Fury was scored a 12 round draw last December. A lot of boxing fans had Fury winning, but the judges felt that Deontay did enough to earn a draw. In Wilder’s last fight, he stopped Breazeale in round 1 last May at the Barclays Center. Wilder walked out into the center of the ring, and nailed Breazeale with a huge right hand that put him on his back. The fight was stopped on the spot.
Wilder wants to leave NO doubts
“When I look at my opponent [Ortiz], there’s nothing he can really do to get better at,” said Wilder. “Of course, stamina, and getting in better shape, but that’s about it. I think it’s VERY important for me. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing it the second time around,” said Wilder about wanting to remove question marks over his previous win over Ortiz. “I want to have no one to have no doubts.
“That’s going to be impossible because there’s always going to be someone that didn’t get a fulfillment with what they saw. You can do 99 things right, but there’s always going to be one person. I fought him, then I fought [Tyson] Fury, and now I’m coming back to him [Ortiz]. It’s like I’m doing a repeat back to back, but I don’t have to. A lot of people didn’t want me to take this fight,” said Wilder.
In the aftermath of Wilder’s win over Ortiz last year, there was a negative feedback from boxing fans about the ringside doctor delaying the start of the 8th round. He wanted to check on Wilder’s status before he allowed the round to start. Wilder had been hurt in the 7th round by Ortiz, and the ringside doctor wanted to make certain that he was in condition to continue.
It’s understandable why the doctor chose to do that. Five years earlier, there was a fight between heavyweights Mike Perez and Magomed Abdusalamov that some felt should have been stopped. Abdusalamov looked hurt, and the fight was never stopped.
People didn’t want Wilder to fight Ortiz again
“You got people that were scared in their heart,” said Wilder. “Not me, but the managers and people around. Ortiz gave me everything he had of him. The 7th round was an amazing round for him. He threw everything that he could possibly do, and he still couldn’t get me down.
“Mentally, that’s going to disturb you. This man still around, because I put him down many times throughout the fight. Many people say I got saved in the 7th, but he got saved in the 5th. There’s a lot of things going for me, and a lot of things going against him psychologically. Now I’m saying I’m healthy. It’s going to be a totally different feeling of power,” said Wilder.
Many boxing fans don’t understand Wilder’s decision to take the rematch with Ortiz. After what happened last time they fought, Wilder is taking a huge risk facing the highly skilled Cuban southpaw a second time. He could have taken a softer opponent to pick up an easy win before his rematch with Tyson Fury next February.
No one would have given Wilder grief if he fought a hand-picked opponent from the bottom of the WBC’s rankings. Instead, he’s facing arguably the best heavyweight in the sanctioning body’s top 15. That’s not a knock on Fury and Dillian Whyte, but they’re not as talented as Ortiz in this writer’s opinion.
Wilder with HIGHEST heavyweight KO percentage:
- Deontay Wilder – 95%
- Rocky Marciano – 88%
- Vitali Klitschko – 87%
- Frank Bruno – 84%
- George Foreman – 84%
“I do and I don’t,” said Wilder when asked if he views himself as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. “What I’ve done thus far [isn’t enough]. Yeah, I did,” said Wilder about him knowing that he possesses a 95% KO percentage.
“When you do it and continue to do it, to me, it’s a surprise. I’m still like, ‘WOW.’ I know I have the power, and I know when I hit guys, it hurts. No matter if I even just tap you,” said Wilder.
“I know it hurts, especially when you have 10 ounce gloves on,” Wilder said. “You can feel it, and I can feel the punch and the structure of their face and the bones in my fist. I do,” Wilder said when asked if he enjoys the feeling of nailing his opponents with power shots.
“I think it comes with a fighter to enjoy what you do. If I didn’t enjoy the punishment I put on my opponents, I wouldn’t be here, because my feelings would get involved in my job,” said Wilder.
It doesn’t mean a whole lot to compare the different heavyweights from different eras. We don’t know how Rocky Marciano, George Foreman and Vitali Klitschko would have performed in this era if they fought the same guys Wilder has.
One would guess that Marciano would be too small to fight at heavyweight in this era, and he wouldn’t do well. Vitali likely would do well, but that’s not a certainty. He was slow, and he seemed to cut and bruise easily. Vitali also had stamina problems that would have hampered him against the elite heavyweights in this era.
Wilder rates Ortiz as TOUGHER than Tyson Fury
“Luis Ortiz,” said Wilder when asked who’s tougher between Ortiz and Tyson Fury. “You can look at that as tough [Fury getting up from his 12th round knockdown against Wilder], but I can’t say too much because I go over your head if I say certain things. Nobody, and that’s what made it such an amazing fight because of it. But for me, that didn’t get my toughest vote,” said Wilder.
“He’s going off of one fight, and that’s a big fight,” said Wilder about Andy Ruiz Jr. “He dethroned one of the champions when many people didn’t think he could do it, because of his looks. We both,” Wilder said in viewing him and Ruiz both having a great year in 2019.
“I definitely want to give him respect for what he did, because a lot of people didn’t pick that, and he was the wildcard for the whole saga that was going on. So he really upset a lot of things, but I’m proud of what Andy said. ‘Momma, we don’t got to struggle no more,'” said Wilder.
Fury did get up off the deck in the 12th round against Wilder, but that’s the only fight where you can say that Fury showed toughness. He’s mostly a spoiler, who doesn’t try to mix it up with his opponents. You can’t rate heavyweights like that in terms of toughness, because they’re unwilling to stand their ground and fight.
Andy Ruiz wishes Wilder “good luck” against Luis Ortiz
“I wish you good luck against Ortiz,” said Andy Ruiz Jr. to Wilder. “I got all the belts that you want, and you have the belt that I want. God bless you and win against Ortiz,” said Ruiz.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. (33-1, 22 KOs) wants to face Wilder in a unification fight if he gets passed Anthony Joshua in their rematch on December 7. Wilder vs. Ruiz would be a huge match-up of epic proportions.
Deontay says a fight with Andy Ruiz = BIGGEST fight in boxing
“I think so because of what he did,” said Wilder when asked if a fight between him and Andy Ruiz Jr. is the biggest fight in boxing. “He replaces Joshua as the biggest fight, and he just replaced him, you know? Being that he’s American, and he has the Mexican side as well. We know Mexicans.
“They love boxing, and I love that about them, you know what I’m saying? They love boxing, and they dedicate themselves to it, and they support theirs. There’s nothing like people that support their own, you know what I mean?” said Wilder.
“I can only imagine as I grow, my people are coming along as well. It’s a beautiful thing to see the development, but when you have a history of it to have both sides like that,” said Wilder. “And then him being the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world.
“You know how many guys tried to become that? I really thought Chris Arreola was going to be the one that was going to do that, because of the way he was coming up, and the way that he was doing.
“I like Chris as a fighter. He was tough, and always coming to perform and give his best. But many guys tried, and many guys failed. The one that nobody [thought would do it], and that’s the beauty of it. Look at him now. He’s still so humble, thanking God 20 times a day. But it’s a beautiful thing to see. I’m always happy for fighters, and I know how hard it is. I know what we go through as fighters,” said Wilder.
If Ruiz beats Joshua, and Wilder defeats Ortiz and Fury, then a fight between those two would be massive. Wilder has to win two more fights before that match-up can be a reality.