By Ian S Palmer
There’s a decent heavyweight scrap on the horizon for this Saturday, March 5th as the hard-hitting and unbeaten Luis Ortiz of Cuba will be taking on American veteran Tony Thompson. The 12-round bout will be taking place at the Armory in Washington, D.C. and can be seen live in North America on HBO. Ortiz is coming off of a seventh-round round stoppage over Bryant Jennings of the U.S. back on December 19th while Thompson’s last bout took place on October 30 and resulted in a 10-round unanimous decision loss. This is reportedly a non-title bout as the WBA Interim belt isn’t on the line.
The 36-year-old Ortiz had an extensive amateur career and enters the ring with a perfect mark of 24-0 along with 21 Kos. As his record shows, Ortiz is a hard-hitting heavyweight and has a knockout ratio of 81 per cent. This is his fourth fight since last year and he’s has blasted 11 of his last 12 opponents out in four rounds or less. He isn’t at all interested in hearing what the judges have to say about his performances as he’s always looking for a stoppage. He has good hand speed though and likes to throw combinations, but other than Jennings hasn’t really faced any other quality opponents.
Ortiz is a southpaw who has just 96 rounds under his belt since turning pro back in 2010. He’s 6-feet-4-inches tall and also has a reach of 84 inches. His biggest wins have been against the likes of Jennings, Lateef Kayote, Bert Cooper and Monte Barrett. However, his first-round Ko over Kayote back in September of last year was changed to a no decision after Ortiz failed a drug test. At the age of 36 Ortiz knows he needs a win here to earn a world title shot.
The 44-year-old Thompson enters the ring with a record of 40-6 along with 27 Kos and didn’t look his best against Malik Scott in October. Thompson is still a decent boxer for his age, but he can’t afford another loss if he hopes to get one more crack at a world title. He’s dropped three of his last five and four of his past eight fights and age is catching up to him. Thompson hails from Washington D.C and is a well-traveled southpaw whose biggest bouts have been a pair of stoppage defeats to Wladimir Klitschko back in 2008 and 2012.
He’s also suffered losses to Carlos Takam, Erik Kirkland and Kubrat Pulev by decisions, but has been stopped just twice. Thompson stands 6-feet-5-inches tall and has a reach of 81.5 inches. He’s fought 246 rounds since turning pro back in 2000 and his current knockout ratio stands at 59 per cent. Thompson has underrated power and the same could probably be said of his chin, since Klitschko is the only man to have stopped him, which he did twice.
Ortiz’s lack of pro experience could hurt him here if the fight goes into the later rounds. The biggest factor in this bout will likely be Thompson’s chin. So far he’s shown to have a decent one and it looks like he’ll probably need it against Ortiz. If Thompson can stand up to the power shots of Ortiz then his chances of winning the fight will improve dramatically since Ortiz’s stamina is basically unknown at this point in his career.
Prediction
Ortiz will rely on his power, but he could be a better boxer than we realize. Thompson has good boxing skills, but is aging and needs to throw volume punches to keep Ortiz off of him. In all likelihood, Ortiz will eventually catch Thompson and stop him anytime after the third round.
