By Jeff Aronow: Former heavyweight world title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz will be battling former IBF champion Charles Martin on New Year’s Day on January 1st, 2022 at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida.

Mike Coppinger reports the news of the two inactive heavyweights agreeing to a deal for this exciting fight.

The 6’5″ Martin 28-2-1, 25 KOs) is coming off a new two-year layoff since his last fight against Gerald Washington in February 2020, and it’s anyone’s guess how much he has left after two years out of the ring.

For his part, the soon-to-be 43-year-old ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (32-2, 27 KOs) will be coming off a 14-month layoff since he obliterated the hapless Alexander ‘The Great’ Flores by a first round knockout on November 7th, 2020.

Five years ago, Charles Martin briefly held the IBF heavyweight title after beating Vyacheslav Glazkov by a third round injury stoppage in January 2016. Glazkov injured his right knee in the fight and couldn’t continue.

If not for the injury, it’s debatable whether Martin would have won the fight because Glazkov looked like the better fighter of the two before getting hurt.

In Martin’s first title defense of his IBF title three months later, he was stopped in the first round by Anthony Joshua after getting dropped twice. Martin can only blame himself for losing because he misjudged the count by waiting too long before getting up, and he was counted out by the referee.

The way that Joshua was firing on all cylinders that night, he likely would have finished Martin in the first round if he’d beaten the count. It was a mismatch from the word go.

The talented 6’4″ Cuban Ortiz has twice challenged former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder for his title, and both times he was knocked out after dominating the early rounds.

Ortiz’s technical skills may prove to be too much for Charles Martin, and we could see a knockout by the fifth or sixth rounds. Martin is too easy to hit, and his chin isn’t what it needs to be for a fighter with poor defensive skills like him.

Boxing fans were hoping to see former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. fight Luis Ortiz next. However, Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs) is taking his time in getting back to fighting first tire opposition since losing his three titles in his rematch with Joshua in December 2019 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Since that loss, Ruiz has fought only once in the last two years, beating 40-year-old Chris Arreola by an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision last May.

It was believed that Ruiz Jr would face Luis Ortiz in his next fight after his win over Arreola, but knee surgery wrecked those plans. Ruiz has now recovered from his knee surgery, and he may face the winner of the Ortiz vs. Martin fight in 2022.