By Daniel Gonzalez

Brooklyn, NY – In his quest for another world title shot, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC), had to use his superior boxing skills to earn a unanimous decision over the the rugged Romanian, Christian Hammer (24-6, 14 KOs).  The hard hitting Cuban southpaw, who is not used to going the distance took a handful of straight rights from Hammer, which is the same punch he fell victim to a year ago in his only professional loss against Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs).  The judges all scored the decision widely in favor of Ortiz, who was the busier fighter over 10 rounds.  Judges John Basile and Waleska Roldan both scored the fight 99-1, while Judge Joseph Pasquale had Ortiz winning every round 100-90.

Ortiz, who claims he is 39 (while other says he is in his mid 40s), has been very active since suffering his loss to Wilder.  He knocked out Razvan Cojanu (16-5, 9 KOs) in July of 2018 and Travis Kaufmann (32-3, 23 KOs, 1 NC) in December of 2018.  Ortiz, who nearly won the WBC title when he wobbled Deontay Wilder a year ago, was clear during the post fight interview who he wants next.  The aging heavyweight promclaimed his readiness for clashes with both Wilder and Anthony Joshua, and his desire to compete for a world title before it is too late.

With the Wilder v. Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) rematch appearing that it is not going to happen as expected, a rematch between Ortiz and Wilder could become a reality.  However, it has been rumored that Wilder will face WBC mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale (20-1, 18 KO) on May 18th at the Barclays Center.

Ortiz’s inability to make quick work of Hammer may have prevented his ability to be the Wilder challenger in May.  It was tough fight for Ortiz, who was expected to knock Hammer.  It was not an easy ten rounds, and Ortiz may need to take some time to recover.  If you ask me, an ideal heavyweight card in Brooklyn featuring Wilder, Ortiz, Kownacki and Breazeale would be the thing for the heavyweight division.  The winners of that night could either fight each other, or call out the Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller/Joshua winner and Tyson Fury.