Leo Santa Cruz believes it might be possible for him to win a title in a fifth weight division.
LAS VEGAS – Leo Santa Cruz has stated his goal of joining fellow Mexican-born stars who have won major titles in four divisions, Erik Morales, Jorge Arce and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Santa Cruz might not stop there, though. How about five divisions?
“It’s possible,” said Santa Cruz, who makes his debut at 130 pounds against Miguel Flores on the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz card Saturday at the MGM Grand.
Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 knockouts) has won belts at 118, 122 and 126. Next on the list is 130, assuming he can beat Flores (24-2, 12 KOs) and lure one of the junior lightweight titleholders into the ring.
So the resident of Los Angeles already knows what it’s like to move up in weight and face bigger men. He’s done it gradually – fighting at each weight multiple times – and successfully. His move to 130 is no different.
As in the past, he works on increasing his punching power through strength training and sparring with bigger men without forsaking his specialty – volume punching, which is a product of intense conditioning.
He said his sparring partners have told him that his punches are heavier than in the past.
“I know they’re bigger guys,” Santa Cruz told Boxing Junkie at the final news conference before his fight Saturday. “I’m a big guy, too. I go up to around 140, 140-something pounds. I’m getting used to this weight.
“I’m sparring bigger guys who fight at 135, 140, so I won’t see that much of a difference. I’m going try this weight now and see how it goes.”
And that title in a fifth division? Is that realistic?
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “Like I said, I go up to 140-something. I work really hard on my body. I think I can go up to 135.”
Luis Ortiz said his knockout loss to Deontay Wilder in their first fight was the result of fatigue and that has been corrected.
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.
Deontay Wilder couldn’t have been more at ease at the final news conference before he fights Luis Ortiz on Saturday. Sean Michael Ham / Mayweather Promotions
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.
Wilder (left) and Ortiz have developed a cordial relationship. Sean Michael Ham / Mayweather Promotions
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.”
Oscar Valdez Jr. is moving up to 130 pounds to face Andres Gutierrez on Nov. 30 but has his sights set on Miguel Berchelt.
Oscar Valdez Jr. is adding a few pounds and some very big aspirations in pursuit of a second division title.
The former 126-pound champion is moving up to 130 to face Andres Gutierrez (38-2-1, 25 knockouts) on Nov. 30 at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on ESPN+, a fight Valdez hopes is a springboard to an immediate showdown with junior lightweight titleholder Miguel Berchelt.
“If we go out the way we want, with the hand held high after this fight, I think we already deserve the position to face Berchelt,’’ Valdez said Monday during a question-and-answer session with media in Los Angeles.
Valdez (26-0, 20 KOs) doesn’t plan to waste any time at the new weight. Berchelt is considered the best of the current 130-pound class. He has made six successful title defenses, just three short of Julio Cesar Chavez’s record.
“In that division, the goal is to fight him,’’ Valdez said. “He is the boxer to beat.’’
The boxer to fear, too.
Oscar Valdez has had a lot to celebrate in his career but is looking for more worlds to conquer. Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Berchelt has power and a presence. He is often mentioned as a possible opponent for current lightweight champion and pound-for-pound leader Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Valdez has never backed away from a big risk. His fearless streak was oh-so evident against Scott Quigg on a rainy night on March 3, 2018 in Carson, California. Quigg failed to make the featherweight limit but Valdez decided to fight anyway. Quigg busted his jaw. Valdez lost a lot of blood and spent several days getting his meals through a straw after his mouth was wired shut in surgery. But he won the fight, scoring a unanimous decision over the bigger Quigg.
It was a sure sign of his courage.
And his determination.
“If I had to retire tomorrow I would not be happy with my career,’’ said Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian who was born in the Mexican border town of Nogales but went to school in Tucson. “I think there is much to achieve , and some of that is to go up and win another title.”
Valdez will be fighting for the third time with Canelo Alvarez’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso, in his corner.
“More than anything, I am grateful to him that he opened the doors for me,’’ said Valdez, who had worked with Manny Robles, heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr.’s trainer. “He has a lot of work with Canelo. At first, we doubted if he would have enough time. But on the contrary, we have spent Christmas together.
“I have learned a lot with Eddy Reynoso, and I will demonstrate it in my next fight. In boxing, you never stop learning.”
Luis Ortiz has had difficulty getting over his loss to Deontay Wilder last year and promises things will be different in the rematch.
Luis Ortiz still has difficulty accepting his knockout loss to Deontay Wilder in March of last year.
Ortiz, who faces Wilder in a rematch on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, had his rival hurt badly in a dramatic seventh round of their first fight – Ortiz’s first shot at a major title – only to get stopped himself in the 10th.
The Cuban has won three consecutive fights since then to earn another shot at Wilder and his belt.
“The entire team has been able to put it in perspective … and to move forward,” Ortiz said through a translator to a group of reporters recently. “I obviously don’t take it as well. It’s a thorn in my side. The difference being, obviously, is that I not only trained harder, but trained smarter.
“So, if the seventh round appears again, it’s going to be a smarter seventh round. And I’ll definitely show what should’ve happened in the first fight.”
Luis Ortiz says he won’t waste an opportunity against Deontay Wilder a second time. Ryan Hafey / Premier Boxing Champions
The 40-year-old contender went on: “There are no excuses. It is what it is. The first fight’s over. We’re talking about this fight and I’m going to get the victory this time. Obviously, things are being done differently. But in the ring, that’s where it’s decided. …
“My state of mind is very different coming into this second fight. Not that I wasn’t focused in the first fight, but I took the loss to heart. It still hurts. I’m still very upset over it, emotionally. I want to be world champion. That’s not just a phrase I throw out there to please the (media). I want to do this and I want to become a world champion.”
The Wilder-Ortiz fight will be available on Showtime Pay-Per-View.
Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz are elite boxers but also fathers who fight for daughters born with challenging medical conditions.
Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz share more than a ring.
They are fathers who fight for daughters born with medical conditions that have required intensive care. It’s a shared experience, a bond between two dangerous heavyweights who will attempt to knock each other out Saturday night in a rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on DAZN.
Wilder’s daughter, Naieya, was born with spina bifida. It can lead to paralysis. With treatment, however, Naieya, lives like most teenaged girls. She’s a happy 15-year-old. It might not have been that way if Wilder hadn’t worked one odd job after another long before he imagined becoming a heavyweight champion.
In 2009, Ortiz fled Cuba on a perilous journey across unpredictable Caribbean waters and finally to the United States, all in search of the treatment his daughter, then 4-year-old Lismercedes, needed for a skin condition, epidermolysis bullosa. It can cause rashes and blisters.
They are rivals and dads who understand why the other fights and why they are fighting each other.
Luis Ortiz and rival Deontay Wilder have bonded over health issues faced by their daughters. Ryan Hafey / Premier Boxing Champions
“I grew a great bond with Ortiz the first time, with his child and my child,’’ Wilder (41-0-1, 40 knockouts) said in a recent conference call while talking about his respect for Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs). “So, I know personally how hard it is and how much it takes to take care of a child with a disorder. It takes a lot of money and it takes a lot of care. So I grew a great bond with him.
“I have seen him as one of the top guys in the heavyweight division. And I want to bless him … for not only … being a great warrior, one of the best in the world, but also for his family.’’
As opening bell approaches, however, each dad promises to knock out the other. Wilder knocked out Ortiz in 10 rounds on March 3 of last year.
“I have plans to finish all of this before the final bell ends,’’ Ortiz said at a media workout at his Las Vegas’ training camp. “But if I need to go the distance, I’m also ready to reach the end of the fight.”
Wilder is bolder about what he intends to do.
“I see this fight going one way and that’s Deontay Wilder knocking out Luis Ortiz, point blank and period,’’ Wilder said. “You know it. He knows it. I know it.’’
Brian Kenny will take up the play-by-play role for Fox’s upcoming PPV broadcast of the heavyweight title fight, Wilder-Ortiz II.
If only the fighters could move as freely between networks.
Fox’s pay-per-view show featuring the heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz on Saturday will include a different – but familiar – voice on the broadcast.
Veteran Brian Kenny, who currently works for rival streaming platform DAZN, will assume the blow-by-blow role alongside analysts Joe Goossen and Lennox Lewis, according to a release.
Fox normally rotates between Chris Myers and Kenny Albert for its blow-by-blow duties but both of them are tied up with NFL assignments, according to a member of Fox’s PR team.
By bringing in Kenny, who also works for the MLB Network, Fox gets a familiar name with a deep boxing background.
Kenny worked on a few PBC on Fox broadcasts from 2015 to 2017. He also has done boxing work for ESPN.
Four of the five best heavyweights will be in action within a two-week period. And they’re not fighting stiffs; they’re facing each other.
GOOD
Four of the five best heavyweights will be in action within a two-week period. And they’re not fighting stiffs; they’re tangling with each other. How often does that happen?
On Saturday, Deontay Wilder defends his title in a rematch with Luis Ortiz in Las Vegas. On Dec. 7, Andy Ruiz Jr. defends his belts in a second fight with Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia. And Tyson Fury, the fifth heavyweight, is in the wings waiting to see how it all plays out.
If you like heavyweight boxing, this is good.
These are tough assignments for all involved, at least on paper. Wilder survived a scare in the seventh round to stop Ortiz in Round 10 in March of last year. Ortiz clearly has the ability to give Wilder trouble – we’ve seen it – and the 40-year-old Cuban seems to understand that this might be his last chance to strike it rich. By all accounts, he’s remarkably fit.
I think Wilder, with the experience of the first fight in the bank, will win again but to say that Ortiz is a live underdog is an understatement.
Many questions surround the Ruiz-Joshua rematch. Ruiz stunned the boxing world by stopping Joshua in seven rounds in June. And it wasn’t a lucky punch that did the trick. Joshua went down four times and seemed to give up in the end, a psychologically damaging fate from which it’s difficult to bounce back.
Should Joshua have taken an interim fight to rebuild his confidence? Will he simply make necessary adjustments and reclaim his rightful position in the heavyweight hierarchy? Does Ruiz have Joshua’s number?
Fascinating stuff.
BAD
Please: Don’t subject us to more of this rubbish. Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images
One main event between YouTubers was enough, even if it did increase DAZN subscriptions and attract some new fans to boxing, as those involved insist. Now promoter Eddie Hearn is hinting that there might be more of that nonsense to come
Ugh.
Hearn had told BoxingScene.com before the KSI-Logan Paul “fight” that he didn’t expect to stage more silly spectacles. Now, after what Hearn and Co. perceive to be a success, they apparently are open to more fights involving YouTubers or other non-boxers on otherwise legitimate cards.
Hearn told BoxingScene: “What we can’t do is turn it into a circus and have random people fighting each other all over the place.”
Guess what: KSI and Logan Paul are random people, at least to boxing fans in general. And, if what Hearn seems to be suggesting becomes reality, we could be headed in the direction of them “fighting each other all over the place.”
The good news is that Hearn said he doesn’t expect YouTubers to headline a boxing card again, although I won’t be surprised if KSI-Paul III ends up as a main event. An exhibition low on the card is much more palatable.
Here’s a better idea, though: Have separate cards featuring only internet personalities and the like. You’ll still make money. You’ll still attract some non-fans to the sport. And you’ll give true fans the ability to opt out if they wish to do so.
I guess I’m a purist. I still cringe when I think of Devin Haney and Billy Joe Saunders fighting on the KSI-Paul undercard. And I know I’m not alone.
WORSE
Did Joe George (left) get enough done against Marcos Escudero to deserve his victory? Dave Mandel / Showtime
I don’t know whether this is bad, worse or something else.
The 10-round light heavyweight fight between Joe George and Marcos Escudero on the ShoBox card Friday in Iowa produced yet another controversial decision, with George winning a split decision even though he was clearly outworked by Escudero.
The Showtime commentators gave George only a few rounds. And I scored it 97-93 for Escudero, seven rounds to three. The official scores? 97-93 and 97-94 for George, 96-94 for Escudero.
I’m still scratching my head.
My instinct is to bemoan yet another example of poor scoring but I’m not so sure I have it right. George (10-0, 6 knockouts) seemed to spend half the fight covering up with his back against the ropes, taking far more punches from Escudero (10-1, 9 KOs) than he was delivering.
Many of Escudero’s shots hit gloves and arms, which means they weren’t scoring blows, but plenty of them did hit legitimate targets. Or so it seemed. I wasn’t at ringside, as the judges were.
I presume that the two judges who scored the fight in George’s favor – Bob LaFratte and Carlos Sucre – saw those exchanges differently. They must’ve thought that George blocked the vast majority of those punches. And I suppose one could argue that the winner landed the bigger blows when he didn’t open up and let his hands go.
I don’t know, though. It sure felt from watching on TV as if Escudero won that fight.
Luis Ortiz suggested that he’ll be better prepared for Deontay Wilder’s unpredictable style when they meet a second time on Saturday.
Deontay Wilder calls them tactics. Luis Ortiz calls them antics.
Whatever they are, Ortiz promises to be ready for them in their heavyweight-title rematch Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“I think that some of the things that Wilder did and the antics that Wilder does could be dealt with differently this time around,’’ Ortiz said through a translator in a recent conference call to promote the sequel to his 10th-round knockout loss to Wilder in March of last year. “…You absolutely never know what Wilder is going to do as far as how he approaches his fights.
“But one thing for sure is that, both mentally and physically, I’m at my best and prepared. So he can bring whatever he is going to bring. No problem.’’
Ortiz (31-1, 26 knockouts) was educated in the Cuban school of classic boxing skill. Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) is all about power. His right hand is today’s most dangerous punch. In terms of history, his right is a classic finisher, an emphatic end to 40 of his 42 fights. It can land from anywhere and at any time, often a sudden strike out of a storm of chaos.
Call it Classic vs. Chaos.
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Trainer Herman Caicedo believes Ortiz’s fundamental skill set can dictate pace and be the difference in the rematch if he can sustain what he does throughout 12 rounds.
“I think the best thing that was going our way was him boxing – getting behind a good jab, and just beating him to the punch and not allowing Wilder to just get crazy with his antics and come out swinging, wailing away,’’ Caicedo said of the first fight, in which Wilder was in deep trouble in a memorable seventh round.
The difference this time, Caicedo said, rests in being “a little bit better on the technical side and on the basics’’ throughout the fight.
“But, again,” Caicedo added, “like Luis just said, it’s very difficult with (Wilder) sometimes, because he’ll spin around and hit you with a back fist. So it’s like you never know what could happen.’’
Ortiz’s conditioning might be a key. He got tired in the first fight, especially in the 10th when Wilder’s predatory power finished his fatigued opponent.
Caicedo is confident that a better-conditioned Ortiz will finish Ortiz.
“He has dedicated 12 weeks in Las Vegas to a camp, and he has really given everything that he obviously couldn’t the first time around,’’ Ortiz’s trainer said. “So, at the end of the day, it’s 1000 percent he will be there. He is a much superior boxer, fighter, thinker and has the experience.
“Wilder has the experience over (nine) defenses but Luis has experience over a history of fighting since he was 10 years old. So that’s going to make all the difference when it comes down to all things being equal in condition.’’
Deontay Wilder said he used his wits to overcome a rocky seventh round in his first fight with Luis Ortiz.
Ring IQ is a term never seen anywhere near Deontay Wilder’s name. His right hand has been all the IQ he has ever needed. He throws it. It lands. It’s over. It’s a pretty simple formula. The proof rests in his astonishing record. Forty-two fights, 40 stoppages. Brilliant, no matter how you calculate it.
Yet Wilder says he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for thinking through adversity.
Example: A rocky seventh round in his victory over Luis Ortiz in their first fight on March 3, 2018 in Brooklyn.
“Yes, I remember getting buzzed,’’ Wilder said in a conference call this week for their rematch on November 23 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
But the buzz didn’t cloud his thinking, Wilder said. He bluffed, he said, but then thought better of it as Ortiz came after him. Wilder said he knew he had to maintain a safe distance, which meant staying close enough to eliminate the leverage Ortiz needed to deliver a finishing blow. For the round’s remaining 40 seconds, that’s what he did, allowing the heavyweight champion to go on to win by a 10th-round stoppage.
“I didn’t get no credit for the intellect that I had in the ring coming around in the seventh round,’’ Wilder said. “So I knew what I was doing and when the bell rung. You can see I knew exactly where I was. I went right back to my corner and I still was talking (expletive) going back there, too.’’
Wilder said he was never hurt in the pivotal round.
“I think people use hurt too much,’’ Wilder said. “They throw that (around) too much because they don’t understand the difference between buzzed and hurt. I advise anybody, if you are in boxing and you want to talk about boxing, experience some of things that we go through. Go in the ring, get hit and see what it feels like to get buzzed or maybe even get knocked out.
“But I understood everything that was going on with me. I was coaching myself internally. My inner voice was telling myself to keep going.’’
Ringside pundits didn’t see what was happening, Wilder said.
“I didn’t want to waste any unnecessary energy, because I wanted to be able to recover,’’ he said. “So,I didn’t want to use that much energy, and so that’s why I hit him anywhere I could, no matter where. It was so that the referee could understand that I’m very active. I’m aware and I can still fight. I don’t think I got enough credit for that.’’
