There is a boxing heavyweight duel between Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz out in New York on Saturday. This should be something special between the two of them as well as they are both putting their unbeaten career records on the line.
Wilder v Ortiz Odds*
Wilder 4/11, Ortiz 2/1, Draw 33/1
Deontay Wilder
The American has held the WBC heavyweight title since back in 2015 and he is taking a W39 L0 career record into the fight. All but one of those fights that Wilder has had in his professional career he has won by knockout. It’s a phenomenal record and he has been touted as a future candidate to step out against Anthony Joshua. Only if he were to win this bout would he likely get his chance to put his money where his mouth is next later this year against Joshua.
Wilder is a hype merchant. Full of all the talk and bravado that is everything that Anthony Joshua is not, so he is a bit of a polarising figure to say the least. Wilder has dominated his opponents during his career however with his sheer power and he has beaten everything in front of him. Wilder’s confidence and self-belief is through the roof, however, he is far from being the most technically sound boxer in the world. A long, long way from it in fact.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ has faced a lot of opponents that was expected to knock out easily. You only have to look back at his last three fights against Chris Arreola, Gerald Washington and Bermane Stiverne respectively. That’s basically an inexperienced veteran in Washington, a fighter who hadn’t been in the ring for two years in Stiverne and in Arreola a fighter who had won just two of his six previous fights, including two defeats against Stiverne. So basically, it can be argued that Wilder has fought no-one of note.
Luis Ortiz
Cuba’s ‘King Kong’ carries an unbeaten 28 fight record into this duel and just last December took out Daniel Martz in the second round through a knockout. The issues surrounding Ortiz is that he has been going through a lot of PED (Performance enhancing drugs) controversy over the last few months. So what can he bring to the table in this one? Well, for starters he has never stopped anyone after round 8 before in his career.
You stack that up against Wilder’s run of each of his last six wins being completed in round 8 or later, then the longer the fight goes on, the less of an advantage that Ortiz will have. The Cuban is a solid performer but lacks speed even compared to Wilder’s andOrtiz can look a bit laboured and lazy at times plus he doens’t always look to have been conditioned as well he could be. He has though won 24 of his 28 professional bouts by a knockout and this will be the biggest fight of his career.
Wilder v Ortiz Prediction
Ortiz is going to be arguably the toughest opponent that Wilders has stepped into the ring with, but you will still have to roll with the reigning champion in this one. Wilder should be able to take a step forward towards the super bout with Joshua later this year. Wilder is a pretty patient fighter until he sees his opponent struggling and then he just unleashes some wild and unstructured attacks. Again, he’s not the greatest of technical fighters.
Wilder is going to know the importance of winning this one and it may not boil down to an early victory for him because he needs to show some patience and caution against Ortiz. Wilder to win in round 7-12 for 13/8 odds at Paddy Power* (betting odds taken at 00:45 a.m. on March 2nd, 2018) is a pretty good shout as Wilder should show his opponents some respect. The longer it goes, the more likely is that ‘The Bronze Bomber” takes it.
It is likely that the only way the challenger gets this would be within rounds 1-7 but that is a big 8/1 shot* (betting odds taken at 00:45 a.m. on March 2nd, 2018) and we’re sticking instead with the favourite.
