By Elisinio Castillo
Cuban heavyweight puncher Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) is not happy with the way last Saturday's fight played out with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs).
Ortiz believed the fight was in his hands after badly hurting Wilder in the seventh round and coming within a few seconds of stopping him before the bell rang.
At the start of the eight round, there was timeout period called, so the local commission could examine Wilder before he went forward with the next round.
But Wilder bounced back by the end of the ninth when he stunned Ortiz, and then scored two knockdowns in the tenth - to finish off the Cuban challenger as the referee waved off the bout before a crowd of over 14,000 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wilder's trainer and co-manager, Jay Deas, has already rejected the idea that some internal collusion was in play to provide his boxer with additional time to recover from the seventh round.
Ortiz and his handlers believe different. They feel the victory was snatched away from them and based on their evidence of what transpired in the eight round they want a rematch to take place - unless Wilder comes to a deal with WBA, IBF, IBO champion Anthony Joshua.
"Look how the referee didn't even have to look at Wilder.. he knew what he had to do. Wilder was completely stunned. We are not taking credit away from Wilder. He did what he had to do and ended the fight like a champion. But his promoters or someone with deep pockets made a sign to the referee.. it wasn't Wilder but someone with interest in his victory," Ortiz stated.
"I feel like we deserve a rematch and I think it should happen if Anthony Joshua doesn't agree to fight with Wilder. We deserve a rematch after seeing this, this was a robbery and it really was an epic battle of Godzilla vs King Kong."
2023-10-20 14:32:19
