By Dan Ambrose: Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz called out Andy Ruiz Jr., Dillian Whyte, and Tyson Fury immediately following his exciting come from behind career-saving sixth round knockout victory over former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin last Saturday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.

After talking about the fight with ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) for over a year now, former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Andy Ruiz Jr. (34-2, 22 KOs) has seemed to have lost his desire to fight the talented Cuban for some reason.

Luis Ortiz wants Andy Ruiz next

“Every heavyweight is on the line. I want to fight Andy Ruiz,” said Luis Ortiz to ESNEWS when asked who he wants to face next after his win over Charles Martin last Saturday night.

So there it is. Luis Ortiz is offering Ruiz a chance to fight for the IBF mandatory position he earned last Saturday night with his victory over Prince Charles Martin.

Unfortunately, Ruiz isn’t expected to take Ortiz up on his offer and risk suffering another loss and forever losing out on the chance to get the trilogy match against Anthony Joshua that he’s been hoping for in the last two years.

Rather than work hard for a lucrative title shot by facing the powerful Cuban talent Luis Ortiz, Andy Ruiz Jr. appears to be taking the lazy approach, sitting and waiting for him to be given a shot at the belts without needing to work for it.

Some boxing fans believe Ruiz wants the title shot to fall into his lap without him needing to earn it the way other heavyweight contenders do. Like an apple falling from a tree, Ruiz wants the title shot.

When the smoke clears from the rematch between Anthony Joshua and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, Ruiz, 32, will sit and hope that he gets chosen by the winner.

Ruiz reportedly already asked Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn for a chance to fight AJ in a trilogy match despite him not having beaten anyone of quality to redeem himself since his one-sided loss in Saudi Arabia in December 2019.

That was the fight in which Ruiz came into the ring looking like a blob at 283 lbs, totally unprepared for the rematch with Joshua due to him failing to train hard.

Ortiz is serious

If Andy wants to guarantee himself a title shot against the Joshua vs. Usyk II rematch winner, all he needs to do is face Ortiz and beat him. Ortiz wasn’t joking around when he said he wanted Ruiz next.

The Cuban talent was as serious as a heart attack when he said he wanted to fight Ruiz next, but there’s nothing he can do if the feelings aren’t mutual.

If Ruiz prefers to sit and wait for one of the heavyweight champions to give him a crack at their titles due to his large fanbase in the U.S, Ortiz will be out of luck.

However, suppose Ruiz wants the boxing public to respect him for showing courage by earning his title shot. In that case, he’ll take Ortiz up on his offer to battle him for his IBF title eliminator spot that he’s now in possession of after his come from behind win over Charles Martin.

Ruiz hasn’t improved with Reynoso

Now trained by Eddy Reynoso, the coach for Canelo Alvarez, Ruiz is no longer talking up a fight with ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. There’s been no improvement since Ruiz dumped trainer Manny Robles and went with Reynoso.

Ruiz felt that training in the same gym with Canelo with his coach Reynoso would be an automatic gain for him, resulting in a mechanical improvement in his talent, but instead, he’s gotten worse.

Hearn wanted Ruiz to come back and beat Luis Ortiz and perhaps another highly ranked contender in the division.

But instead of doing that, Ruiz has fought just once in the last two years since his defeat against Joshua, beating 40-year-old Chris Arreola last May in a lackluster 12 round unanimous decision on FOX PPV in Carson, California.

Many boxing fans don’t know that last Saturday’s IBF heavyweight title eliminator could have been between Ortiz and Ruiz.

That was a fight that had been discussed for Ruiz to take to lock himself in as the IBF mandatory to challenge for the title against the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua 2 rematch.

With Ruiz failing to show interest in fighting Ortiz, the fight went to the 35-year-old Martin (28-3-1, 25 KOs), who gave a good performance before getting knocked out in the sixth round by King Kong.

Ortiz says Fury doesn’t have an opponent

“I want to fight Dillian Whyte,” Ortiz continued. When asked if he wants to fight heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua next, Ortiz said, “I don’t want to call Usyk or Joshua because I know they have a rematch, but look, Fury doesn’t have an opponent.

“I’m ready for anybody,” said Ortiz. “As of now, it’s the best fight of the year. Nobody can deny it,” said ‘King Kong’ Ortiz on his come from behind win over Martin.

“I’ll fight Frank [Sanchez] if Frank wants to fight, but I don’t think that’s fair, Cuban against Cuban, when there aren’t a lot of Cubans there. They’re in a place where they can’t get out of Cuba, so I don’t see it as fair.

“But if anyone else wants to fight from any other nationality, then they’ll fight. I don’t call it, but if they call it, I’ll fight anybody,” said Ortiz.

King Kong Ortiz was trailing on the scorecards last Saturday night when he pulled off the stoppage of Martin in the sixth round after dropping him twice.

At the time of the stoppage, the judges had Martin up by the following scores:

48-45
47-46
48-45

It wasn’t even close on two of the scorecards, which is why Ortiz needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat to get the stoppage victory over the powerful southpaw Martin. Ortiz had been dropped in the first and fourth rounds, and he looked desperate going into the sixth round.