"If I could hit Wild again, I swore I would hammer him off the head." - "King Kong" Otiz Author: Bibliophile (famous Chinese boxing commentator)
Two months ago, a "King Kong" climbed up to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. There, it wielded its giant palm and nearly knocked down an airplane, the Bronze Bomber.
Luis Otiz (28-1, 24ko), from Cuba, was impressed in the challenge of "Bronze Bomber" Wilder (40-0, 39ko). His onslaught in the seventh round almost gave WBC champion Wilder a taste of being ko.
Unfortunately, Otiz was close to 39 years old at the time, and he was unable to take advantage of the chase, giving Wild a chance to breathe, and finally lost twice in the 10th round.
But the fierce style of this giant beast is obviously affirmed by boxing fans and boxing organizations. A few weeks ago, WBC ordered Otiz to play a challenger decision match with Dillian White, and the winner would win the challenge against WBC champion Wilder.
Ortiz, who is currently no. 4 on WBC, is excited to play a challenger decision match against No. 1 challenger White.
He said: "Thank God for giving me this opportunity, thank you to my team and WBC for making this race a challenger tournament and for giving me the opportunity to hit the championship again! ”
"[White] wanted to hinder me from achieving my goal, my goal of resuming matches with Wilder. Thinking of the match with Wild, my heart was like a knife, and I wanted to throw away the knife that was stuck in the mouth of my heart, because it was still a painful experience for me. ”
However, whether Otiz can fight White depends on the other party's willingness.
In addition to the mandatory challenge on the WBC side, White also has the opportunity to get a challenge on the IBF side, and the IBF has White play a challenger decision match with the No. 2 challenger Plev in order to determine the IBF side against Joshua 's mandatory challenger (IBF currently has no No. 1 challenger). Pleev was once granted the right to challenge Joshua, but was forced to retire due to injury and was temporarily replaced by Takham.
In any case, the Cuban "King Kong" saw the opportunity to challenge again, and he vowed not to make the mistakes of the first battle again. For example, when Wilder is hit hard, his attack is even wilder.
Otiz said: "The rematch will be different, I can assure you! I don't think about winning or losing in the rematch, I just want to knock Wilder out of the head! ”。
But now it seems that the probability of "King Kong" climbing up the tall buildings in New York and competing with the "Bronze Bomber" for the golden belt is unlikely, because the current competition for the right to challenge is too fierce.
At present, the golden belt of the four major organizations is in the hands of Joshua and Wild (the regular champion of the WBA is Char, and many people do not consider him for reasons such as box office). The mandatory challengers at the top of the four major organizations are WBC2 Brazzere and WBA/WBO1 Powittkin.
Brazzere beat Molina in the Challenger Decision last November, so he will challenge the WBC champion first, while the Otiz/White winner will be behind Brazzere before he can get the WBC challenge.
Povitkin (34-1-24ko) has been waiting for four and a half years since losing to Kle Jr. in 2013, during which time he knocked down Char, Tacham, Perez, Watts, Duhoupas, beat Ludenko and Hammer, beat eight heavyweight top 15 challenger-level strongmen in a row, and knocked out British giant Price with a fierce attack in the last game.
There is no doubt that Powittkin has played a quasi-world championship-level report card. Even Joshua and Wilder, beating off these challengers can not be regarded as a weak opponent. So both the WBA/WBO put Povitkin in the Organization's No. 1 challenger position.
What's more, he is also the No. 3 challenger of WBC, so it is basically impossible for WBC4 Otiz to surpass Povitkin to get the challenge right first.
Meanwhile, Wilder and Joshua are talking about a four-time victory battle, a game involving nearly $100 million in profits that leaves all challengers, including Brazzere, Povitkin, Ortiz or Plev, sitting on the sidelines and watching the hilarity.
The four major organizations are certainly willing to give the green light to this kind of unification war, after all, this can raise the heat of the entire boxing world to another level. Once the two sides negotiate a united front this year, it is estimated that there will be no defensive battle between the two of them in the second half of the year. Early next year, WBC forced challenger Blazzere to complete the challenge, next summer Powitkin fulfilled the challenge right, and Ortiz will not be able to get the challenge right until the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020.
That said, if Ortiz can beat White or other top-ranked challengers in the coming months, such as Joseph Parker no. 5 and Chris Martin No. 9 to get the WBC mandatory challenge, he will not be able to realize his dream of challenging the WBC championship again until the end of 2019 or even the beginning of 2020.
No way, the competition in boxing is so fierce, after losing a key match, it may take at least a few years to save it.
The years are not spared, and Otiz, who has won the right to challenge again, is at least 40 years old. Although there have been nearly ten world champions in the history of boxing who are over forty years old, after all, it is rare among about 1600 champions, almost one out of two hundred.
Therefore, we can say that according to the normal law of development, Ortiz's dream of world championship is difficult to achieve, and he who only has a ranking in WBC may not be able to wait for the day when he challenges the world championship for the second time.
But he does have a chance to fight Wild again: once Wilder loses to Joshua in the United Front, after a period of rest, perhaps he will choose Otiz to play a qualifying match in order to regain the right to challenge. Only in this case can we see "King Kong" climb to the top of New York again to fight the "Bronze Bomber".