Which of these is the better heavyweight southpaw of the recent era, where Ortiz hasnt officially retired yet? Can their results against Wilder provide a comparison? I would say that Ortiz is technically better but he didnt get to finish Wilder and has left bad impressions against Charles Martin and Ruiz, while Zhang beat Wilder and had good moments against Parker and may have more power than Ortiz.
Zhang by far. Hence why Zhang has beaten the likes of Joyce and Wilder whilst Ortiz most notable wins are against very average boxers in Jennings and Charles Martin (after being dropped twice by Martin)
Ortiz is technically far superior, Zhang without his tremendous power to bail him out, would lose every match.
Zhang is better and it's not even close. Ortiz is smaller, less power, worse chin, comparable gas tanks. Ortiz's best win is Jennings or Charles Martin, Zhang's Wilder and Joyce and some will argue Hrgovic as well. Just look at their amateur records. Ortiz wasn't even the best or even 2nd best heavyweight in Cuba as Savon was better and Solis beat him 5 times. Zhang was an Olympic silver medallist and won 2 bronze medals at the world championships. They were simply on different levels as amateurs. Ortiz never even qualified for the Olympics losing to Robert Alfonso in the semi finals of the national champions in Cuba in 2008 when Zhang went to the Beijing Olympics.
Ortiz looks slicker against dross... Doesn't necessarily count for much if you never step up and fight the better fighters available (and Ortiz ducked Joshua to fight Wilder again, for much less cash, of course). Zhang's chin is clearly better and he hits much harder - he's cruder, but more effective. In truth, I'm not sure either of them is particularly special - Zhang's still only 3-2-1 against top-200 fighters at this point, remember... It's not like you have to be all that special to beat Wilder - Ortiz nearly did it despite being bang average, being way past prime against Wilder at arguably his best, and the referee bailing Wilder out. I tend to think Zhang gets overrated a fair bit - but then Ortiz got overrated a heck of a lot. Zhang's the better of the two, but neither was ever that great.
I dont think Ortiz is technically better at all. Zhang has excellent technique. He might have the least telegraphed punches in the entire division right now.
Ortiz way better than Zhang. Zhang has good hands and strength but Ortiz all round better and doesn’t tire like zhang
Ortiz wasn't even Cuba's number one heavyweight in his absolute physical prime, Teofilo Stevenson was.
Yeah, tell that to John Molina Jr. and Joe Smith Jr. Some people are just naturally heavy handed, Zhang is one of those guys.