Wilder – Ortiz: The First Fight

Early Aggression from Ortiz

Ortiz started out with particularly strong ring generalship. He had Wilder on the back foot most of the night, which impeded Wilder’s ability to sit down on his punches and throw the devastating right hand he so often chases. It was clear that Ortiz had the superior skill, as he controlled the action and peppered Wilder with varied shots. For his part, Wilder was throwing almost exclusively jabs and straight rights. The champ was flustered early, while Ortiz was poised and aggressive.

One of the greatest discrepancies between the fighters was their attention to bodywork. Pundits often say that punches to the body are like putting money into a smart investment. While there might be a better place to put it in the short-term, it has great long-term payout. According to CompuBox, Wilder landed an abysmal five body shots, only one of which was a power punch.

Wilder Throwing Bombs

The headhunting ended up paying off when Wilder scored a knockdown in the fifth round. Wilder wobbled Ortiz with a straight right hand before rushing in to send Ortiz to the canvas with a right hook. Ortiz was able to recover and ended up making it through the rest of the round without too much difficulty.

King Kong Takes Control

In the seventh round, Ortiz showed why his superior boxing ability would be integral in this fight. Wilder threw a sloppy punch and Ortiz countered with a right hook. He then drilled Wilder with a straight left hand. It was instantly clear that Wilder had been hurt, and Ortiz pressured. Wilder went into survival mode, leaning on Ortiz and staying in the clinch as much as the referee would allow. Though he failed to secure a knockdown, Ortiz was dominant enough for all three judges to score the round ten to eight in his favor.

Early in the eighth round, it looked as though Wilder hadn’t fully recovered from Ortiz’s barrage and it appeared that we might have seen a new WBC champion. However, Wilder was able to recover as the round progressed and by its end, he looked fine.

The Fall of Kong

Toward the end of the fight, Wilder seemed to get a bit more confident, sitting on his punches and landing more. The fight came to a grand finale in the tenth round as Wilder knocked Ortiz down. King Kong recovered before he was eventually finished by a ferocious barrage of power punches.

It was revealed that all three judges had Wilder ahead by a point going into the tenth round, and all three cards were nearly identical. The scorecards were evidence of a wild fight that went back and forth all the way until the end.

The Rematch

Since the initial fight, we’ve seen Wilder impress, battling to a controversial draw with lineal champion Tyson Fury last December and sparking Dominic Breazeale in the first round of their May bout. Ortiz has had a pair of knockouts against mediocre opponents (Razvan Cojanu and Travis Kauffman), as well as an ugly decision over Christian Hammer. Ortiz claims he’s in the best shape of his life, but we’ll see how that translates in the ring.

This fight is, on paper, a major risk for Wilder. Ortiz is still a player in the heavyweight division and he was hurt badly in the first fight. I expect this fight to play out similarly to the first one but end earlier. Wilder wins by TKO in the middle rounds.

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