Luis Ortiz: Will the Heavyweight Division Pull a “Canelo” and Freeze Him Out?

By Ian “The Boxing Historian” Murphy

The Heavyweight picture shifted significantly last November when long time recognized champion Wladimir Klitschko lost his titles to British comedian and sometime singer (also not a bad fighter!) Tyson Fury. Since that day, a number of contenders, hype jobs and “trampions” have come out of the woodwork as claimants for what used to be referred to as the “Greatest Title in Sports”. Deontay Wilder has dusted off a couple of “opponents”, and some noise is being made across the pond with Britain’s Anthony Joshua, who appears to be by many as the heir apparent to the title. However, there is a monster in lurking from Cuba by the name of Luis Ortiz, nicknamed “The Real King Kong”.

Ortiz, in fact, and not Wilder or Joshua, is the future of boxing’s Big Men. A while back, a certain “Historian” was lamenting the Heavyweight division’s precipitous fall from grace, but saw a beacon of hope in the distance. This ray of light in the darkness of mediocrity was coming from Cuba in the form of Luis Ortiz. The big Southpaw (6’4, 240 lbs) from the Caribbean has a well rounded skillset that is lost on his contemporaries. Wilder can hit, but can be wild and sloppy, especially defensively. Fury has a solid handle on range and movement, but cannot crack a grape. Joshua looks like the goods, but his competition is not yet top level. Also in the picture are Alexander Povetkin and IBF titlist Charles Martin, but neither have the polished and balanced game that Ortiz has.

Ortiz has it all: good technique, good power, excellent footwork, and (drumroll…) actually has a jab and uses it. Imagine that? His only weaknesses is his age (36) and maybe a lack of speed, but his footwork, timing and varied attack more than make up for it. At the moment there is no one (on paper) that can touch Ortiz. Wilder is too inconsistent defensively, and has yet to fight someone who can match his size and ability. Ortiz can do this and likely ices him inside 8 rounds. Klitschko is not the fighter he was, and his performance against Fury painfully (for the viewer) illustrated it. The man was juked out of his shoes by a British comedian. Joshua has the most potential, but is still a little green. His fight with Martin on April 9th could give us a clearer idea on where his development is at. Povetkin is a solid veteran, but is likely to be physically outmatched by Ortiz, even if he gets past Wilder later this year.

As far as gaining potential fights with the other top Heavyweights, Ortiz will unfortunately have to wait a bit longer. Currently, Ortiz is the odd man out at the moment as the other top dogs in the division are currently busy with other contenders/champions/trampions.

Klitschko and Fury are tied up in a rematch to be held sometime this year, and the winner could be paired with the victor of Wilder/Povetkin. Anthony Joshua and Charles Martin are fighting on April 9, so if the winner of that fight doesn’t take a lot of damage, maybe Ortiz gets the victor.

If Luis Ortiz gets the right fights, he can unify the belts. He’s that much better than the opposition. However, in this day and age of hand-picked opponents and carefully navigated careers, I find that unlikely. Unfortunately, a much more plausible scenario is that Ortiz could get “Golovkin-ed” and get frozen out of key matchups by the scared managers of the other contenders until he is too old to win them…

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