By Ian S Palmer
There’s a decent heavyweight scrap on the books for this Saturday, November 12th as the hard-hitting and unbeaten Luis Ortiz of Cuba will be taking on American veteran Malik Scott over in Monte Carlo. The 12-round bout is for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title and can be seen live in the UK on Sky Sports 2. Ortiz is coming off of a sixth-round round stoppage over American veteran Tony Thompson in March while Scott also beat Thompson in his last outing, but by way of a 10-round unanimous decision in October of last year.
The 37-year-old Ortiz had an extensive amateur career and enters the ring with a perfect mark of 25-0 along with 22 Kos. As his record shows, Ortiz is a hard-hitting heavyweight and has a current knockout ratio of 81 per cent. This is his fifth fight since last year and he’s has blasted 11 of his last 13 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 and likes to throw combinations, but other than Bryant Jennings and the ageing Thompson hasn’t really faced any other quality opponents.
Ortiz is a solid southpaw who has 102 rounds of action 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 the 44-year-old Thompson along with 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 37 Ortiz knows he needs another win here to earn a world title shot.
The 36-year-old Scott of Philadelphia will climb into the ring with an impressive record of 38-2-1 along with 13 Kos. He’s been beaten just twice and those losses came at the hands of Deontay Wilder in 2014 and England’s Dereck Chisora in 2013, who stopped him in the first and sixth rounds respectively. Therefore, Scott’s chin has been questioned, but he did rebound last fall when he beat Alex Leapai by a 10-round unanimous decision and then beat Thompson the same way. Scott has good size too as he’s also 6-feet-4-inches tall with a slightly shorter wingspan of 81 inches.
His knockout ratio stands at just 32 per cent though and he has 244 rounds under his belt since turning pro back in 2000. Scott’s career got off to an excellent start as he went 35-0 before suffering his first defeat to Chisora via a highly-controversial stoppage His best performances have been against the likes of Bowie Tupou, who he stopped, and Vyacheslav Glazkov, who he earned a draw with. However, Scott was inactive in from 2009 to 2011. Ortiz is looking to stop his opponents due to his power, while Scott lacks a heavy punch and basically has to depend on his boxing skills to get by. This means we could see Scott play the matador to Ortiz’s bull.
Prediction…
Scott has good experience, but is more or less the same age as Ortiz and doesn’t have the power to hurt the Cuban or keep him at bay. His chin is also a question mark and this could lead to his downfall. The only way Scott wins this fight is if he can take Ortiz’s power for 12 rounds and land enough shots of his own to win on the scorecards and that’s not likely to happen.
