Jennings: Ortiz lacks confidence and has chin issues

By Boxing News - 12/17/2015 - Comments

JenningsOrtiz(Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/HBO) By Jim Dower: Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) expects to expose WBA interim heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz (23-0, 20 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night on HBO Championship Boxing from the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York.

The 31-year-old Jennings has watched Ortiz’s past fights as a pro, and sees him as having both confidence and chin issues that he plans on exploiting. Jennings thinks the 6’4” Ortiz doesn’t like to get hit, and will struggle when he starts getting nailed by him on Saturday.

Jennings is coming off of a 12 round decision loss in his last fight against former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last April in New York. Jennings attributes his loss to all the constant clinching that Klitschko was allowed to get away in the contest. Wladimir’s frequent holding made it impossible for Jennings to get comfortable in the fight.

“He [Ortiz] has issues,” Jennings said via RingTV.com. “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. He lacks confidence. He has chin issues. His conditioning needs to be questioned. He’s going to have to fight, and he’s someone that’s not used to being touched. He doesn’t have dog in him.”

Ortiz has fought poor opposition as a pro in his five-year pro career, but he did fight many of the world’s best in his long amateur career in Cuba. He won a lot of awards as an amateur, but he was never consistently the best like the late Teofilo Stevenson was or Felix Savon. The 6’4” Ortiz was just a big amateur heavyweight with a record of 343-19.

As a pro, he’s looked good thus far in beating 23 little known opponents, but he’s faced no one of note that could tell you anything about him. Ortiz did stop cruiserweight Lateet Kayode in the 1st round last year. But after the fight, Ortiz tested positive for a banned substance. The fight results were then overturned and changed to a no contest.

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“That would have shown already in previous fights,” Jennings said. “This is his first real fight in his boxing career. He’s 36 and has been boxing forever. Facing me is something new to him. He hasn’t faced anyone like me. This is a place he hasn’t been before.”

Jennings won’t have to worry too much about Ortiz clinching him the way that Wladimir did in their fight earlier this year, because Ortiz doesn’t do much holding. Most of Ortiz’s fights have ended early though, so it’s quite possible that he could resort to holding if he gets tired in the fight and doesn’t have the energy to stand and trade.

If Jennings is going to test Ortiz’s chin in the fight, then he would be better off waiting until after the 4th round before he does so, because Ortiz fights with a lot of power through four rounds. Jennings, 6’3”, is a little shorter than the 6’4” Ortiz, but he’s got an identical 84-inch reach, and he throws more punches than him.

Ortiz has a southpaw stance going for him, so perhaps that will help him. He’s clearly the bigger puncher than Jennings, but for him to use his power, he’s going to need to take risks that he’ll get hit back.

“I don’t need to prove to anyone the confidence I have in myself as a fighter,” Ortiz said



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