Luis Ortiz: The Next Heavyweight Champion or Heavyweight Bust?

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By Jesse “New School” Wright

There is a lot of noise coming out of the heavyweight division. Some guys are doing it with their mouths, others are doing it with their fists. If the division hinged on a guy’s ability to yell out his name in a half-baked impersonation of The Rock, Tyson Fury would be the supreme ruler. That’s not how this works, of course. So when we take a look at the guys who can make the bodies hit the floor, the two big names that stick out are Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz. Of those two, the smoother, more groomed fighter is Cuban defector Luis Ortiz.

There is a big difference between a natural athlete who becomes a fighter, and a fighter who works to become more athletic. The pure fighter has the mental advantage to overcome almost any obstacle. He understands himself as well as his opponent. He understands his opponent better than his opponent understands himself. He is mentally prepared for anything. Ortiz is a tried and true pure boxer, and although his body doesn’t look like it was chiseled from granite, he still moves around quite gracefully.

In Wilder’s last fight, there was a notorious showdown with Tyson Fury. Wilder made the statement “I don’t play this.” The implication with this statement is that boxing is not just a sport that is played, but rather a lifestyle choice. In this regard, nobody in the heavyweight division understands boxing as a lifestyle more than Ortiz. In the Cuban amateur development program, winning Olympic Gold is the reason for existence. They eat, sleep and breathe boxing. They literally do. They fight for their meals. Bedtime stories are all boxing themed and alarm clocks are the voice of a trainer’s screaming to get them up for 4 a.m. conditioning. For Ortiz, boxing is all he’s ever known. It’s the only skill he’s ever been trained with.

Ortiz’s amateur record is 343-19. That is not only outstanding, but also incredibly deep. A rule of thumb, and this goes for any weight division, is that a guy with over 200 amateur fights will usually be able to overcome adversity on the professional stage. Ortiz looks as cool and calm in the ring as he would be taking a walk in the park. Every fight is business as usual. There isn’t much he hasn’t seen already. With all due respect to every fighter in a growingly exciting division, nobody has the goods to beat Ortiz. Not right now at least.

The downside? He’s already 36 years of age. Wladimir Klitschko is only 3 years older at 39, and he just now got dethroned after a 10 year run at the top of the division. Ortiz’s reign might not be a long one, but for right now, he’s my pick to take the heavyweight division.

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