Lets say instead of Wilder, Ortiz faced Anthony Joshua on 03.03.2018. How do you see this playing out? Would Ortiz be tricky for Joshua and catch him with nasty counters and finish him, or Joshua walks through him?
Ortiz could have taken on Ustinov, and/or Joshua, but he fought Wilder twice. Homer Simpson has a word for that .. 'Doh!'.
Late KO for AJ if hes in his prime. Ortiz then was quite good and is IMO better than his detractors say he is and he could really bang and counter hard but his footwork and stamina were mediocre. Unlike Usyk.
Joshua had an opportunity to fight Ortiz when Hearn signed him to Matchroom, but he kept him far away from Joshua and put him in with Dave Allen instead… Clearly Hearn didn’t have faith Joshua could beat Ortiz.
He didn't have an opportunity tho. The timelines don't add up. Eddie signed Ortiz in October 2016. AJ was in talks to fight Klitschko in December, but Wlad got injured and the fight was moved to April. AJ chose Molina as the replacement instead as Ortiz was already scheduled to fight Allen for the WBA mandatory spot. After that, Ortiz switched teams and went to PBC. He would have fought AJ in early 2018, but got caught on PEDs in the meanwhile and lost the WBA mandatory spot.
AJ by KO the same way he dispatched of Povetkin who was a better fighter and stronger puncher than Ortiz.
Joshua by KO 7-8 and I'm agree with the opinion of Maccaveli I see a fight similar than the Povetkin's fight.
When the fight was first mooted I thought Ortiz was all wrong for Joshua, and it's Ortiz's biggest career mishap that he listened to Al Haymon and turned the fight down. I would have backed Ortiz to put Joshua on Bambi legs with a sneaky left hand and then finish the job.
Joshua would stop him late. He gets a bit underrated because of his performance post-Ruiz but he was different before getting his cherry popped.
AJ by ko, he is just better than Ortiz in just about every category. Odd that op picked a losing version of Ortiz as well.