King Kong Aint Got Nothing on Luis Ortiz!

By James “The Truth” Doell

Photo credit: Gene Blevins/Hogan Photos

Cuban Heavyweight Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, 25-0, 22 KO’s, will be returning to the ring on November 12th to face Malik Scott, 38-2, 13 KO’s, for the vacant WBA inter-continental title. This bout is set to headline a stacked card put together by Eddie Hearn from the Salle des Etoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Luis Ortiz was promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions during his rise to stardom in the boxing world, who had plans of Ortiz fighting Alexander Ustinov, 33-1, 24 KO’s, on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez Vs Amir Khan in June of this year, but negotiations fell through after Ortiz reportedly asked for more money. They then attempted to schedule the bout as the co main event to Canelo vs Smith on September 17th, but Ortiz again backed out of the fight. With Ortiz and Golden Boy being mutually frustrated with each other, they came to terms for a seven figure deal for Ortiz to buy out of his contract and pursue new opportunities. He received a lot of criticism for this move, but many are now taking back that criticism.

Over the weekend it was announced that the 37-year-old Cuban has signed a new promotional contract with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. This came as a surprise to many, especially considering that Ortiz has never fought in Europe. The heavyweight division is thriving across the pond however, with the likes of Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Anthony Joshua, David Price, Dillian Whyte, David Haye, etc. all competing overseas. So the new Ortiz signing has the possibility to open the door for many big fights to be made in newly revived Heavyweight Division.
Ortiz first won the WBA interim world heavyweight title in 2014 after stopping Lateef Kayode, 21-1, 16 KO’s, in just one round, but the victory was overturned to a no contest and he was stripped of his newly captured title after failing a drug test. He would again capture the WBA interim title two fights later, when he stopped Matias Ariel Vidondo, 20-2, 18 KO’s, in just three rounds. He then knocked out top contender Bryant Jennings, 19-2, 10 KO’s, who was coming off of a unanimous decision loss to then heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, 64-4, 53 KO’s. In his most recent, and last fight with Golden Boy Promotions, he scored a sixth round stoppage over 44-year-old Tony “The Tiger” Thompson, 40-7, 27 KO’s, who was coming off of a decision loss to Ortiz’s next opponent; Malik Scott.

Malik Scott won the first thirty-five fights of his career and was considered one of the top prospects in the heavyweight division, despite being somewhat unknown. In July of 2013, he traveled to the United Kingdom to fight Derek Chisora, 26-6, 18 KO’s, at Wembley arena for the vacant WBO international title. Scott was stopped in the sixth round, marking the first defeat of his professional career. This loss, however, didn’t stop him from getting opportunities at the top of the division. Two fights after his knockout loss to Chisora, he stepped in the ring with knockout artist Deontay Wilder, 37-0, 36 KO’s, and was easily stopped in the first round of their WBC title eliminator, marking Wilder’s 30th knockout in thirty fights. Wilder now holds the WBC World Heavyweight title. He has bounced back slowly from that loss, fighting only twice since. In October of 2014, he won a unanimous decision over Alex Leapai, 30-7-3, 24 KO’s, and almost exactly a year later won a unanimous decision over Tony Thompson.

On the undercard, two former world champions, Martin Murray, 33-4, 16 KO’s, and Arthur Abraham, 45-5, 30 KO’s, face each other in a rematch for the WBO International super middleweight title. The pair first fought back in November of 2015, where we saw Abraham retain his WBO world super middleweight title via split decision. Abraham lost the title in his next fight against Gilberto Ramirez, 34-0, 24 KO’s, via unanimous decision and bounced back by beating Tim Robin Lihaug, 15-2, 8 KO’s, for the vacant WBO international super middleweight title. As for Murray, he took a tune up fight after his loss to Abraham and stopped Cedric Spera, 12-5, 2 KO’s, in the second round of their fight scheduled for eight, and most recently lost a unanimous decision to George Groves, 24-3, 18 KO’s, for the WBA international super middleweight title.

f this event wasn’t interesting enough, there are two more world title bouts on the card.

Jason Sosa, 19-1, 15 KO’s, is looking to make the first defense of his WBA world super featherweight title against Liverpool native Stephen Smith, 24-2, 14 KO’s. After fighting to a draw against Nicholas Walters, 26-0-1, 21 KO’s, Sosa traveled to Beijing, China, to take the WBA title belt from Javier Fortuna, 30-1, 22 KO’s. Earlier this year Smith challenged Jose Pedraza, 22-0, 12 KO’s, for his IBF world super featherweight title, but came up short as Pedraza dropped him in the ninth round on his way to a unanimous decision victory to retain his title. He bounced back from his failed title challenge by stopping Daniel Eduardo Brizuela, 28-6-2, 8 KO’s, to capture the vacant WBC “silver” super featherweight title.

In the second world title fight of the night; Jamie McDonnell, 28-2-1, 13 KO’s, will be attempting to make the fifth defense of his WBA world bantamweight title against former world flyweight champion Liborio Solis, 25-4-1, 11 KO’s. McDonnell stopped Tabimdaeng Na Rachawat, 52-3, 34 KO’s, to capture the vacant title on May 31st 2014. He has made four successful defenses, including most recently; a ninth round stoppage over Fernando Vargas, 30-10-3, 20 KO’s, who was coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Wilfredo Vasquez Jr, 24-6-1, 19 KO’s. Solis once held two world titles at super flyweight before moving up a weight class, but his campaign at bantamweight has been against mostly mediocre opposition thus far. Earlier this year, he challenged Shinsuke Yamanaka, 26-0-2, 18 KO’s, for his WBC world bantamweight title, but fell short of a victory, losing a unanimous decision. He has won his past two fights, and his bout against McDonnell will be his fourth time fighting this year.

This stacked event promises to be an exciting night of boxing and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports on November 12th.

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