Deontay Wilder vs Luis Ortiz: Crude champion ignites heavyweight division with devastating knockout

In Las Vegas late on Saturday night Deontay Wilder entered the ring in a jewelled costume that was part showgirl and part unknown comic book hero and struggled until one punch dropped Luis Ortiz for the full count of ten with just a few seconds left in round seven.

It was a breathless end, a short right just above Ortiz’s left eye, arguably the first clean right cross that Wilder had landed; down went the Cuban veteran, down heavily and for ten seconds he fought with gravity, fought for clarity in his scrambled mind and finished the ten count on his feet, but with both gloves still touching the canvas.

Ortiz can often look an old 40, but in the MGM ring he was sparkling at times, evasive, concise with his punches, smart, fast and clearly winning just about every completed round before the end, an end he and everybody watching knew was possible. “It’s boxing, it took one punch, no excuses,” said Ortiz.

Wilder retained his WBC heavyweight title, which he won nearly five years ago, for the tenth time and joined an elite club of just a few heavyweights, including Muhammad Ali, who have made that many consecutive defences. Wilder is now unbeaten in 43 fights, 42 have been wins and 41 of the wins have been knockouts or stoppages. The one blemish was last December when he escaped with a fortunate draw after an epic 12 rounds with Tyson Fury and Fury was dropped twice, including heavily in the final round.

In Las Vegas on Saturday night, Ortiz used every single bit of the ring intelligence and smarts he acquired during his nearly 370 amateur contests in Cuban colours and was simply too clever for Wilder. There is a strong case that up until the final punch, with just about seven rounds completed, Ortiz had won every round. Ortiz used his feet and his mind to build the lead, stepping in and out of range, moving off to his right and away from Wilder’s right, timing his counters and generally putting on a technical show for six completed rounds, and about two minutes and fifty seconds of the seventh round. And then, bang.

Wilder, however, had started to finally adjust his feet, edge a fraction closer in the seventh and had forced Ortiz to take the smallest of risks. The knockout punch was heading at a target far beyond Ortiz’s head and that is where the power comes from, which is a knockout trick that all the artists know. Ortiz’s eyes rolled in his head as he went down sleeping, waking as he crashed to the canvas – it was a real puncher’s end, both beautiful and disturbing to watch.

In their first fight last March in New York, Ortiz was seconds away from stopping Wilder in the seventh before running out of steam and getting knocked out in the tenth. The rematch was a genuine risk, a real risk to the planned rematch with Fury, which is scheduled for Las Vegas in February. “Nobody wants to fight Ortiz – they say he is too old, too slow and they use that as an excuse. He is a great fighter and a great man,” said Wilder, the type of post-fight compliment that is winning him a lot of fans.

Beating Wilder is simple, arguably the easiest victory to plan from the safety and comfort of a gym or hotel suite high above the Las Vegas lunacy; stay away from his right, jab him silly and survive until the final bell. Bingo, an easy win on points. A man called Bermane Stiverne did survive the full twelve in 2015 and lost widely when Wilder was raw and Fury did it with spills last December - that is the full list of men to have heard the final bell in the life and lethal times of Wilder.

The heavyweight division is a place of dreams right now with Fury, Wilder and the rematch between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz less than two weeks away. There are a dozen other men just positioned on the outside, pushing for their shot in what could be a golden few years. The sanctioning bodies, an often foul cabal of men with dumb agendas, might just ruin it by demanding stupid fights and stripping away the belts the two champions hold, but if we get Wilder v Fury II, possibly Joshua getting revenge, Ruiz then wanting revenge, and somehow Wilder or Fury against Joshua or Ruiz next year, then we will be in rare and glorious days. Hallelujah for the modern heavyweights, so long a division in the shadow of recent and historic greats.

Meanwhile, in Liverpool a few hours earlier, Callum Smith retained his WBA super-middleweight title with a tight points win over London’s John Ryder. I had it 6-6 at the end of 12 gripping rounds and there can be no serious complaints about ether man nicking the verdict, but the scores from all three judges were insultingly wide in Smith’s favour. It was not, as many want to believe, a robbery or corrupt, it was just a bad, bad night once again for three men sitting in judgement at ringside. A rematch makes sense, surely.