By Ian S Palmer
Heavyweight hopeful Luis Ortiz of Cuba returns to the ring this Saturday, July 28th when he takes on Razvan Cojanu of Romania at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The 10-round contest can be seen live in the U.S. on the Showtime Network and on TSN 5 in Canada. Ortiz last fought in March when he was stopped by WBC Heavyweight Champ Deontay Wilder in a 10-round thriller. Cojanu’s last outing came back in May of last year when he dropped a unanimous decision to then-WBO Heavyweight Champion Joseph Parker.
The 39-year-old Ortiz had an extensive amateur career and enters the ring with a mark of 28-1 along with 24 Kos. As his record shows, he’s a hard-hitting heavyweight who has a current knockout ratio of 77 per cent. This is his ninth fight since 2015 and he’s has blasted 12 of his last 17 opponents out in four rounds or less. He isn’t interested in hearing what the judges have to say about his performances as he’s always looking for a stoppage. Ortiz appeared to be on the edge of stopping Wilder ma few months ago, but couldn’t put him down though.
Ortiz has decent hand speed for a big guy and likes to throw combinations, but other than Wilder, Bryant Jennings, Tony Thompson and Malik Scott, he hasn’t faced a steady stream of top-quality opponents. Ortiz is a still a solid southpaw who has 133 rounds of action under his belt since turning pro in 2010. He’s got good size at 6-feet-4-inches and has a reach of 84 inches. The Cuban’s biggest wins have been against the likes Thompson, Jennings, Lateef Kayote, Bert Cooper and Monte Barrett. However, his first-round Ko over Kayote in 2014 was changed to a no decision after failing a drug test.
The 31-year-old Cojanu, is just over 6-fee-7-inches tall with an 81-inch reach. This gives him a three-inch height edge over Ortiz, but a three-inch reach disadvantage. He now fights out of the U.S. and has 80 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2011. He possesses average power with a current knockout ratio of 47 per cent. Most boxing fans may know Cojanu from his fight against Parker last year. He enters the bout with a record of 16-3 along with nine Kos.
Fans probably don’t recognize many of his other opponents though, perhaps other than Grover Young, Ed Fountain and Manuel Alberto Pucheta. His first loss came against Alvaro Morales via a four-round majority decision in his pro debut and his second defeat was to Donovan Dennis by second-round stoppage in April of 2015. He’s a big guy who didn’t really look too impressive against Parker and has moire or less been chosen for this fight to allow Ortiz to regain some of his confidence following his loss to Wilder.
Prediction…
Ortiz can often be frustrated by movement and good boxing skills, but Cojanu won’t represent that type of a problem. I’m expecting Ortiz to bounce back with a stoppage win.
