Not NEARLY as bad as AJ did after dropping Wlad in the 5th. And that's an old man on medication, what's AJ's excuse? Ortiz is listed as 6'4 on Boxrec and 6'3 a few other places on the web, I've yet to see him listed as 6'2. Although AJ fanboys will use every propagandistic tool at their disposal, including shaving inches off of fighters heights. Jesus.
I believe Ortiz was remeasured for the Wilder fight and had his height listed at 6'3". That's where it came from. Now, we'll see how bad Whyte wants a shot at Wilder. He can't complain about having to actually earn that shot. Whyte, while I think he's technically in the top 10 at the moment, he isn't top 5 like Ortiz, so I have Whyte losing.
Which is why I got a feeling Hearn might be tempted to roadblock this fight, feed Whyte some bodies to flatten instead, and keep the AJ vs Whyte rematch narrative relevant. Coming off a brutal KO loss against Ortiz won't help that.
I think he'd accept it too, but will his management not prefer Pulev/IBF route to a rematch with AJ? Far more lucrative and the IBF won't be throwing surprise 'second mandatory' contests into the equation.
Whyte fights everyone out there. That's definitely a really good/positive attitude compared to Wilder for example who needed 39 fights to fight a real threat out there.
Haymon has pied Hearn's attempt to give Whyte a shot at Wilder here and it's beautiful Really cool fight though. Ortiz is better than Whyte is pretty much every department. My one concern for Ortiz is his ability to fight for 12 rounds. When he dictates the pace it's fine but that flurry against Wilder took a lot out of him. Though I also wonder how much Wilder's power took from him too. Whyte doesn't punch anywhere close to Wilder, so Ortiz can probably afford to make some mistakes this time (like when he over reached against Wilder and got countered hard for it). So long as he doesn't absolutely gas he should school and probably stop Whyte. However, I don't think the fight happens. Hearn will move down the IBF\Pulev route instead. Which I guess means we'll get Ortiz-Parker instead
I'm so confused...so Ortiz is old/shot/hasn't beat anybody, but several of you are crying because Whyte has to fight him?
Haymon has paid off the WBC to bypass Whyte as the rightfully deserving mandatory challenger, and it is ugly.
If I was Breazeale I would fight with a crossed right hand guard and low tucked chin, (Wilder just has a straight right and a right hook, no left hook to be worried about) triple up the jab storming in, rug Wilder up and force the weight advantage over him, draining his energy - repeat.