are there 10? i don't think there are 10 one could call "top", but it's not hard to be ignorant with this...
No, he couldn't. Ortiz wasn't rated by the IBF when AJ fought Breazeale. I already explained the situation with Molina and Takam. Adding to it, Ortiz already popped for PEDs when AJ chose Takam as a late replacement for Pulev. Ortiz wasn't legible for that fight anyway tho. Ortiz ducked Joshua cause he literally rejected the best deal of his life to fight him, which his management later said was a bad decision. Nothing Matchroom about that, just straight facts.
You have that a little mixed up. After Miller popped dirty, Matchroom offered Ortiz's manager $5 million for a Joshua fight. Miller was supposed to get $7.5 million. Ortiz's manager (according to the manager, himself) immediately countered with $10 million (mor than Miller was getting). Ortiz's manager said a day or two later, he thought they were "negotiating." But Hearn was just looking for a replacement. So, Hearn called Andy Ruiz's manager. Ortiz found out, because they all knew each other, and called his manager and asked what was going on and to take the first offer. Ortiz wanted the fight. The money was fine. Ortiz's manager then called Hearn back and said the first offer was fine. But Hearn had moved on. He was trying to quickly save the NY promotion. He didn't want to haggle with anyone. So, Ortiz's manager went public and said he had screwed up and that they would take the first offer ... hoping to use social media to get Hearn's attention and save himself from the biggest screwup of his career. But then Andy Ruiz's team accepted the offer. Ortiz's manager publicly apologized to Hearn and Ortiz and said he was mistaken and thought they were going to come together in the middle. But Hearn wasn't negotiating. Hearn didn't lowball Ortiz. Ortiz didn't turn down the fight. Ortiz's manager just thought he was in a negotiation, and HE WASN'T. It was a straight up offer. And, when he didn't immediately accept, Hearn had other fighters on his list and just moved on.
Thanks for adding the context. Do you, by any chance, have a source with a quote where Ortiz's manager apologized to Hearn as I frankly didn't see it?
Regardless his manager works for him so you'd imagine he'd have been aware He should have made the decision to fight instead of messing around
Thompson was PED busted against Price in at least one of the fights iirc. He also threw 1000+ punches against Solis in his 40's, which doesn't seem natural. The frequency of PEDs in boxing and how murky it all is; how often fighters obviously get away with it, make me reluctant to discredit any PED wins. For me, Thompson is Ortiz's 5th best win because Scott beat him just before Ortiz beat Scott. And Ortiz handled Thompson easily, who had recently exposed fighters and given Pulev and Takam competitive distance fights.
We have to be a bit more cynical about the sport, particularly A-side cash cow superstar fighters. If Hearn and Joshua were desperate to fight Ortiz instead of Breazeale, Molina and Takam, best believe that strings could have been pulled to make it happen. The simple explanation, and one supported by numerous quotes from Hearn himself, is that Ortiz was a dangerous high risk low reward fight for Joshua, particularly in 2016 and 2017, prior to Wilder knocking him out and Ortiz aging to 40+. Ortiz had little money relative to Joshua and no doubt wanted that 3 belt fight. He'd have fancied his chances. He got in with Wilder twice, which was no less intimidating than fighting Joshua. In retrospect it is quite obvious: Ortiz was an undefeated very experienced highly skilled hard hitting Cuban southpaw counter puncher. If you are trying to protect your investment, you avoid a fight like that if at all possible. Ortiz even joined Matchroom to get the Joshua fight and Hearn didn't even make Whyte fight him, Ortiz was given Dave Allen and Malik Scott, nothing fights while he was aging out.
So you're changing your narrative. Now you're saying AJ's camp should be desperate and get out of their way to fight Ortiz like he was some kind of a monster, lol. You're just complaining for the sake of complaining. Ortiz joined Matchroom and Matchroom put him into position to be the WBA mandatory. He would get the AJ fight, but got caught on PEDs. It was his fault the fight didn't happen. Then, in 2019, his management messed up when the fight was on the table. Again - not AJ's fault. Not to mention the narrative of AJ being scared of Ortiz falls flat, looking at the fact that he fought better boxers than Ortiz doing that stretch in Klitschko, Parker and Povetkin. And if AJ beat Ortiz, you would say he was an another old guy who Joshua beat.
When he got busted for PED's he had already signed to fight Wilder, likely because he knew the Joshua fight wasn't happening any time soon. He had already been avoided by Hearn/Joshua. It also assumes these drug tests are above board and don't discriminate against B-side or politically disfavoured fighters, which I don't believe. I also think Povetkin's failed test was too convenient for Wilder, and dispute the pro-Wilder narrative from Dubblechin that it was "all Povetkin's fault". I disagree that Parker was better than Ortiz, or even the 39 year old Povetkin but my argument is largely stylistic, and the Wlad fight was risky but big reward. Parker is less dangerous than Ortiz because he is an out boxer without great skill or foot speed, and not a puncher. We have seen Joshua struggle with a Cuban (Savon), southpaws (Nistor stopped him, Cammarelle, Usyk), Cuban-trained front foot counter punchers (Ruiz) and big punchers (Wlad, Dubois). Everyone knew Ortiz was a threat and said as much, this was prior to him signing with PBC and getting the Wilder fight. If Joshua had beaten an undefeated Ortiz, I would have him as Joshua's 2nd or 3rd best win, on par with Povetkin.