By: Hans Themistode
It may not seem fair, but life doesn’t always afford us with second chances.
For Heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz, he is one of the very few who is an exception and not the rule.
Ortiz has long been given the distinction of the most avoided fighter in the Heavyweight division. There is a reason why even at his advanced age, that no one truly wanted to step into the ring with him.
WBC belt holder and self proclaimed king of the division Deontay Wilder didn’t believe in the hype surrounding Ortiz and almost paid a price for it.
When the two men met in March of 2018, at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York, Ortiz was just a few seconds away from stopping Wilder in the seventh. Things didn’t quite play out the way he was expecting as Wilder survived the round and subsequently stopped Ortiz in the tenth.
Ortiz will now be given another chance. At 40 years old this could very well be his last shot at a title. Beating Wilder won’t be easy, but it can be done. Keep reading to find out the keys that could lead Ortiz to victory.
Forget About Patience
The first contest between them was action packed, but the first four rounds were painfully slow. This is a normal trend in boxing as fighters take a bit of time to find their rhythm and shake off any nerves that they have at that moment.
It might sound a bit suicidal to tell Ortiz to jump right in, but the sooner he can get the attention and respect of Wilder the better. Notice that I didn’t say be reckless. Just simply throw your heavy artillery from the very beginning.
Find That Straight Left Hand Again
Finding success against Wilder is such a seldom discovery. Yet, Ortiz is one of the very few who was able to find some. Outside of Wilders first fight with Tyson Fury, no one else has been able to find a consistent recipe for success against him. Ortiz has many tools in his bag but his left is undoubtedly his best one.
Wilder found himself on the wrong end of those left hands and because of it, almost lost his WBC title in the seventh round. Ortiz needs to find that punch once again. Wilder might find a way to neutralize it the second time around but if Ortiz is going to pull off this upset than he needs to get that punching going once again.
Keep Your Hands Up
It sounds like very basic instructions. Putting up your hands is essentially the first thing a fighter learns in the boxing ring. Too many times during their first contest was Ortiz caught with his hands down. You cannot, I repeat cannot do that against Wilder. For as vagarious as the WBC champion is, one thing that he does not do is go down to the body. He’s a head hunter, and a very good one at that.
Ortiz needs to protect himself from that by keeping his hands up at all time. If Wilder can knock Ortiz out with a body shot, then so be it. He has yet to prove that he can do that to anyone in his career so you have to think it’s something that he just isn’t capable of doing.
