Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz on Nov.4 at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz on Nov.4 at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz on Nov.4 at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz on Nov.4 at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

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WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) vs. Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs) has been officially announced for November 4 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The Wilder vs. Ortiz fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing on November 4. The kickoff press conference for the Wilder-Ortiz fight will be taking place this week on Wednesday on September 20. This is a great fight for boxing, as well the heavyweight division. Wilder-Ortiz is the best fight at heavyweight since earlier this year when 41-year-old former champion Wladimir Klitschko faced IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a big fight at the Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Wilder and Ortiz’s promoters waited until the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight was over before they made the move to announce their huge heavyweight clash. You’ve got to give Wilder, 31, and Ortiz a ton of credit for facing each other, as it’s a risky fight for both men.

For Wilder, it’s a monstrous step up in competition, as he’s been milking his World Boxing Council heavyweight titles cine winning it 2 years ago in beating Bermane Stiverne. Wilder has defended the WBC title 5 times in beating these over-matched heavyweights:

• Eric Molina

• Johann Duhaupas

• Artur Szpilka

• Chris Arreola

• Gerald Washington

Ortiz, 38, comes from an extensive amateur background in his native Cuba. Ortiz has got loads of talent, and can pretty much do it all. Ortiz has a number of different fighting styles he can use any one fight. At times Ortiz looks like a combination of Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis in his fights. He’s dangerous, and power and southpaw stance makes him even more of a threat to beating the 6’7” Wilder.

The thing that is working against the 6’4” Ortiz winning this fight against Wilder is his advanced age. Ortiz is nearing 40, and some boxing fans believe that his real age is closer to 45 than 38. Ortiz appears to be slipping as well, as he looked better 2 years ago in his fights against Bryant Jennings and Matias Ariel Vidondo than he did recently in his last 3 fights against David Allen, Malik Scott and Tony Thompson.

Ortiz won his last 3 fights in a convincing manner, but he showed some deterioration from the fighter he was before. If Ortiz plods against Wilder, he’s going to get nailed by some huge right hands. As good as Ortiz is, he’s only human. Wilder hits so hard, and he has a way of changing his fights with one punch. Wilder has that kind of power.

The thing that gives Ortiz a chance to win this fight is how shaky Wilder has looked in his recent fights against Washington and Arreola. Wilder looked beatable in both of those fights. Wilder injured his right hand in the Arreola fight, and he was forced to use his jab from round 5 until getting a stoppage in the 8th. Washington, 6’7”, was getting the better of Wilder through 4 rounds.

Wilder changed things abruptly in the 5th round when he knocked Washington down with a hard right to the head. After Washington got back to his feet, Wilder finished him off to get a stoppage. Still, it was not the type of performance that made one feel confident that Wilder will be able to get past guys like Ortiz and Joshua.

Those are solid heavyweights, who would take advantage of Wilder’s slow start to bang him out before he had a chance to get warmed up properly. Wilder will need to start a lot faster against Ortiz if he doesn’t want to get knocked out on November 4. Ortiz has a chopping left hand that he likes to throw that is powerful enough to get his opponents out of there.

Wilder has the height, reach, mobility, speed and punching power going for him that may be enough for him to get past Ortiz. It’s still going to be awfully tough for him. If Wilder gets too close to Ortiz, he could get hit with one of his powerful uppercuts and dropped. That’s what happened to Bryant Jennings. He did too much in fighting against Ortiz, and he paid for it by getting hit with a big uppercut and dropped.

Jennings fought like he wasn’t aware that Ortiz had an uppercut in his arsenal. If Jennings had done his homework properly, he would have spotted Ortiz’s uppercuts by studying his past fights in his career. Wilder as least is aware of Ortiz’s dangerous uppercut, so he can avoid that punch at all costs. That doesn’t mean Wilder will win. Ortiz is a seasoned pro, and as I pointed out, he’s got tons of amateur experience. Wilder won a bronze medal in for the U.S in the 2008 Olympics, but he did it on power of his right hand. Wilder was eventually beaten by Clemente Russo of Italy in losing by a 7-1 score to be weeded out of the Olympics.

Wilder is likely going to use a lot of movement to keep away from Ortiz in this fight. Ortiz is too dangerous for Wilder to stand in front of him unless he’s going to be unloading with his right hand. This is a more dangerous fight for Wilder than it is for Ortiz, because the Bronze Bomber still looks so raw. He’s not as nearly a complete as Ortiz. That’s just the unfortunate thing about it.

Ortiz had an early start in Cuba with his long amateur career, and he has so many skills to his boxing game. Wilder will likely never know half as much as Ortiz already knows. That’s just the way it is. Wilder had a late start to his boxing career, and he didn’t have the benefit of fighting in Cuba with their top amateur program. It’s arguably the best in the world.

If Wilder can get past Ortiz, he’ll receive a ton of respect from the boxing world, and he’ll learn a lot in the process. Ortiz has so many tricks that he uses in his fights. Wilder will need to be on his J-O-B for him to get past this guy. The fight is coming at the right time for Wilder, as he wants to battle IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a unification fight in 2018. If Wilder beats Ortiz, the experience and the confidence that he’ll get from the fight will be the perfect springboard to help him for his even bigger match-up against Joshua next year.