Deontay Wilder versus Luis Ortiz: Preview and prediction

Heavyweight titans Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua are on a collision course, seemingly destined to share the ring for the division’s biggest title fight in well over a decade.

Assuming they both continue to win, of course.

Joshua, the WBA, IBF and IBO king is set to lock horns with WBA champ Joseph Parker on March 31 in a fight everybody outside of Parker’s immediate friends and family predict he will ace.

But first, Wilder, the WBC heavyweight champion, is scheduled to defend his crown tomorrow afternoon against two-time performance-enhancing drug cheat Luiz Ortiz.

Ortiz’s latest drug test failure – his second in three years – caused the first Wilder-Ortiz title fight to crumble apart.

Justice being what it is in the shady sport of boxing, five month later the fight has been revived after the WBC brought Ortiz’s story that he flunked a drug test due to medication he was taking for high blood pressure.

Habitual steroid cheat or not, Ortiz is a serious threat to Wilder, with many boxing heads convinced he will rip the title away from the American puncher.

At six-foot-four and 240-pounds, Ortiz is as wide as he is tall, a southpaw, and possesses skull crushing knockout power. Truth be told, he’s the most dangerous heavyweight on the roster without a gold belt.

For Wilder, who has been accused of cherry-picking easy challengers in the past, he could’ve easily dodged a bullet after Ortiz’s drug fiasco last November.

The fight was canned, and now he had a valid excuse not to schedule another fight against him.

“From a promotional standpoint, you weren’t screaming for the fight,” Wilder’s manager, Lou DiBella said, speaking to Kevin Iole.

“Your fellow writers weren’t screaming for the fight after the last controversy, and frankly, the public wasn’t screaming for it. It’s Deontay screaming ‘I’m the best, watch me,’ which is very dangerous when there’s a couple hundred million dollar fight sitting out there in the not-so-distant future.”

When a promoter opens their mouth, you have to take everything they say with a degree of skepticism. After all, DiBella is responsible for Wilder’s career and selling tomorrow’s fight against hard-hitting Ortiz.

In this case, however, there is a lot of truth to those words flowing out of Dibella’s mouth.

Wilder versus Ortiz is, on paper, one of the most evenly matched heavyweight title fights in recent memory.

Ortiz, the Miami-based Cuban defector, is the perfect fighter to test the defensive liabilities displayed by Wilder.

When Wilder smells blood, he tends to go buck wild, winging wild haymakers in hopes of landing a blow that will separate his opponent from their consciousness.

Against Ortiz, a crisp boxer who can really crack, that could be a problem.

That being said, there are a few reasons that tip the scale in favour of the champion in this match-up.

The first being Ortiz’s age. The former silver medalist at the Boxing World Cup is reported to be 38-years-old but without a valid birth certificate many have speculated he could be several years older. That’s a concern.

Then you have to factor in his inactivity, having made just one trip to the ring since 2016. Not to mention, questions have to be asked about whether or not Ortiz is again attempted to gain the system given his chequered past.

The last, and most apparent, reason the champion will likely retain is Wilder’s reach advantage. Being six-foot-seven and built like a Greek statue, the Alabama native is a great athlete who knows how to use his lanky frame.

When Ortiz does manage to get inside of the champ’s reach, he will hit and perhaps even hurt Wilder, but that shouldn’t be often.

In the Bermane Stiverne fight, Wilder masterfully used his jab to maintain his distance, sprinkling in the overhand-right for good measure all night.

Assuming he follows that game plan to a tee, there’s no reason the 32-year-old ‘Bronze Bomber’ shouldn’t retain his crown, even if there are a few shaky moments along the way.