LAS VEGAS – An interviewer asked Deontay Wilder how his rematch with Luis Ortiz on Saturday night at the MGM Grand will end.
The heavyweight titleholder, seated on the dais during the final news conference before the fight, looked up at the interviewer standing next to him and said politely and with a straight face: “Look who you’re talking to.”
Indeed, one can almost assume that Wilder’s opponents will not hear the final bell.
Only Bermane Stiverne, against whom Wilder was content to box to win his championship almost five years ago, and Tyson Fury have gone the distance with the Bronze Bomber. And Stiverne lasted less than a full round in their rematch.
Wilder’s knockout ratio of 95.2 percent (of total) fights is highest in heavyweight history.
Ortiz understands the magnitude of Wilder’s punching power as well as anyone. The Cuban, who almost stopped Wilder in the seventh round, went down twice and couldn’t continue in the 10th round when they met for the first time in March of last year.
Still, Ortiz, while acknowledging that Wilder (41-0-1, 40 knockouts) is a strong man, said in so many words that Wilder’s power is nothing out of the ordinary.
“I’ve had 500 fights since my amateur career over 10 years,” he said through a translator. “When you get hit by a heavyweight, everybody has power. Sometimes it feels like a horse or a mule kicking you.”
Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs) said the reason he was stopped in the first fight was more about fatigue than Wilder’s ability to inflict damage.
The 40-year-old said he trained six weeks before the first fight and weighed 241¼, a typical weight for him. That had always been sufficient for Ortiz to be successful. For this fight, he said, he trained 12 weeks – including work with a strength and conditioning coach, as well as a nutritionist – and is expected to come in lighter than his previous weight.
Everyone would agree that he looked positively svelte at the press conference, his flat stomach visible behind a tight workout suit.
If Ortiz hurts Wilder again, will better fitness enable him to finish the job? Or will Ortiz’s conditioning give him a better chance of withstanding Wilder’s power for the entire 12 rounds?
Wilder isn’t preoccupied with those questions.
“He looks good,” Wilder said of his rival, “but I don’t think it’s going to matter against a fighter like me. 365 days I’m in shape. I come to camp in shape. The first day of camp, we sparred. I’m always prepared, always ready to go.
“And it’s always a good feeling to see my opponents in shape as well, prepared properly and ready for war.”
Wilder implied during the news conference that this fight could be his opponent’s last opportunity to fight on the biggest stage, which hit a nerve with Ortiz. He obviously doesn’t plan to fade away any time soon.
“This isn’t going to be my last opportunity,” he said. “I’m here to fight. You’ll see on Saturday. … It was just simply fatigue (in the first fight). I corrected that. And this time around the better man will win.”