Tarkus wrote:verlichte wrote:Kalan wrote:
He was referring to Ortiz son.. Read between the lines... Ortiz is the most dangerous and skilled Heavyweight in the world, but at 38 he's aging rapidly... The strategy should be to fight Wlad again.. Parker.. Fury.. Wilder.. and then Ortiz when AJ is much more skilled with 23 fights and Ortiz is really old. That way he has a much better chance of going 24-0 with 24 straight KO wins -- and there'll be a brand new crop of young killers invading the division.
It's kind of funny how people that use this forum consider "facts" as bad, but "rumour", "gut instinct", "bias" and "reading between the lines" as good.
Believe whatever you want to kid. Your preferred perception of reality is far more "exciting" than real-world objective and verifiable truths.
You have to read between the lines. Because this is boxing and rarely anyone talks directly. Now I am far from the opinion that Joshua is scared of Ortiz but it did not escape my attention that when Eddie Hearn was talking about the potential opponents he several times mentioned champions and mandatories, Klitchko, Wilder, Parker, Pulev and Fury, but did not mention Ortiz. Even though Ortiz has been a mandatory for some time and has been vocal about fighting Joshua. Are you seriously thinking Eddie forgot about Ortiz, someone he briefly signed just a few months ago? Certainly not. In fact Eddie started talking about not defending belts exactly when Ortiz was made mandatory. By now it should be obvious that he doesn't want Joshua Ortiz, he sees it as a too high risk fight.
My gut instinct tells me that the reason why Eddie Hearn would prefer Anthony Joshua to face Kubrat Pulev, as opposed to Luis Ortiz, is because the Bulgarian is popular in Germany (helping to attract 10.5m German viewers and 1.02m HBO PPV buys when he fought Klitschko)... and he also happens to be promoted by Team Sauerland (who are close partners with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom).
The last two times Luis Ortiz competed on British soil, he delivered subpar performances that stank the joint out. And the Cuban is not a popular fighter commercially, since he doesn't attract TV audiences.
Whilst I honestly believe that Anthony Joshua is a better fighter than Luis Ortiz, the risk-versus-return ratio does not offer favourable returns. In fact he doesn't really bring anything to the table, so he wouldn't be deemed as an attractive opponent to face even if he was a journeyman.
‘King Kong’ either needs to gain more exposure to the British audience, whilst delivering memorable performances, or he has to possess something that AJ wants, such as another version of the world title (i.e. the WBC version).
If Eddie Hearn doesn’t have any plans for AJ to face Ortiz, it’ll be due to sensible business reasons, instead of "fear" of ruining Joshua’s unbeaten record.
By the way, Luis Ortiz is no longer promoted by Matchroom. He’s with Al Haymon and I suspect his fights will now be promoted by Lou DiBella.
Going back to my original claim about Anthony Joshua though, I really believe the sincerity of his words when he said that he
“couldn’t give a fúckíng shít about the titles” - he wants to
“face the biggest name opponents for the biggest paydays”. This was a general claim... and Luis Ortiz is nether a big name opponent and nor does he offer an opportunity to gain a big payday.
Out of interest, do you really rate Luis Ortiz, because I feel that he’s nowhere near as good as the hype and praise that has been lavished on him by many “hard-core” fans? I don't know if his age is causing his recent decline, but he hasn't looked that impressive for more than two years.
