At the GMG Grand Arena, Las Vegas, Deontay Wilder silenced his doubters and lived upto his words in the round up to the fight. Wilder was asked why he took this risk to accept this fight and among many reasons he said his rematch with Luis Ortiz will end in a knockout and he will advise everyone who will be watching not to go to the bathroom or go get a snack neither check their cell phones because the knockout could come at any moment.
True to his words, Wilder 32, (42-1-0, 41KOs) dished out a crushing traditional right hand straight to the head of Ortiz that sent him crashing on the canvas in the 7th round to retain his WBC heavyweight world title to make a record defence the 10th time in the division.
Ortiz was convincingly outboxing Wilder until that devastating right hand to the forehead in the seventh round.
Ortiz 40, (31-2, 26 KOs) confidently in a very high spirited demeanour outboxed Wilder in the first round, created openings in Wilder’s defence and landed good combinations of a right jab and a hard overhead followed with flurry of punches in the second as Wilder look for a spot to launch his right hand.
With success, Ortiz continued to plant left jabs in the face of Wilder as he chases him to the corner to open a flurry of punches on him. A combination of punches followed from Ortiz to the body of Wilder but he responded with a solid straight right that shook the balance of Ortiz in the third round.
Ortiz was completely in charge of the fourth round landing decent and good combination of punches to the head and body of Wilder exhibiting good technique in the process. Ortiz landed two hard punches with power shaking the balance of Wilder but he escaped by backtracking.
The fifth and sixth round was in the same trend like the earlier rounds with Ortiz dictating the pace of the fight as Wilder look for to unleash his right hand. Momentarily, Wilder flicked out a jab and came behind with a thunderous right hand to the head of Ortiz that snapped his head and dropped him hard crashing on the canvas on his back. Ortiz struggled to get up but he couldn’t as referee Kenny Bayless counted him out and waved his hands to signal the end of the fight.
Wilder in an arrogance fashion moved to the white corner as he raises his hands to celebrate his second KO defeat of one of the best heavyweight boxers in the division.
“You can see why no other heavyweight wants to fight him,” Wilder said. “He’s very crafty. He moves strategically, and his intellect is very high. I had to measure him in certain places. I had to go in and out, and finally, I found my measurement.”
The Cuban southpaw boxer had commanded the pace of the fight and judges Eric Cheek, Dave Morreti and Steve Weifeld scored the bout 56-58, 55-59 and 55-59 respectively all in favour of Lius Ortiz until that heavy duty right hand knockout from Wilder in the 7th round.
“This is boxing. I said that one of us was going to get knocked out and it wasn’t going to go 12 rounds,” Ortiz said through an interpreter. “I was clear-headed when I hit the canvas. When I heard the referee say, “Seven,” I was trying to get up, but I guess the count went a little quicker than I thought. I’m ready for any battle. I want to thank my team and everybody that came to see this fight.”
The stage is set for the rematch of Wilder-Fury 2 after both boxers have satisfied the two interim fight clause. Fury dispatched Tom Schwartz in the second round and later Otto Wallin on a unanimous decision. Wilder also before his fight with Ortiz crushed Dominic Breazeale in a round 1 KO.
Asked what he wants next, Wilder said, “Next, of course we have Tyson Fury in a rematch. It’s set to be done in February, so we’ll see how that goes. Then after that, I’m looking for a unification. I want one champion, one face, one name, and he goes by the name of Deontay Wilder. The heavyweight division is too small to have all these titles floating around. It’s too confusing for the fans. I think I’m the perfect man for the job.”