By Ian S Palmer
Heavyweight hopeful Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz of Cuba returns to the ring this Saturday, December 1st when he takes on Travis Kauffman of Reading, Pennsylvania. The 10-round bout takes place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury tilt. The contest can be seen live in the UK on BT Sport Box Office while American fans can catch it on Showtime PPV and Canadians can see it live on PPV. Ortiz last fought in July when he stopped Razvan Cojanu in the second round while Kauffman’s last fight was a 10-round majority decision win over Scott Alexander in June.
The 39-year-old Ortiz had an extensive amateur career and enters the ring with a mark of 29-1 along with 25 Kos. As his record shows, he’s a hard-hitting heavyweight who has a current knockout ratio of 78 per cent. This is his 10th fight since 2015 and he’s has blasted 13 of his last 18 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 WBC champion Deontay Wilder in March, 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. Still, he’s a solid southpaw who has 134 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 78 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 33-year-old Kauffman enters the bout with a record of 32-2 with 23 Kos to his name. He’s also a pretty hard hitter with a current knockout ratio of 66 per cent. Kauffman isn’t the biggest heavyweight around, but he’s not small either as he stands 6-feet-3-inches in height with a reach of 76 inches. This means he’s an inch shorter than Ortiz and has a slight two-inch reach disadvantage. He has 130 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2006 and has wins against Josh Gormley, Cliff Couser, Chris Koval, Ross Thompson and Epifanio Mendoza.
His first loss was a fourth-round KO at the hands of Tony Grano in August of 2009 and he also dropped a 12-round majority decision to Amir Mansour in March of 2017 for the vacant WBC United States Heavyweight Title. Kauffman also lost a 12-round split decision to Chris Arreola in December of 2015, but the result was changed to a no-decision after Arreola failed a post-fight drug test. Kauffman may have a fine record and good power, but he hasn’t fought anybody who could be considered a top-10 contender other than Arreola and perhaps Mansour.
Prediction….
Kauffman has won 14 of his last 16 bouts, not counting the Arreola no-decision, with eight of them coming inside the distance. He’s stepping up in class again tough against Ortiz. Nobody really know how old Ortiz is, but he just keeps coming forward in most bouts and has the power to stop most opponents. It may even go the distance, but I’m expecting Ortiz to record another win.
