Why wasn't Luis Ortiz a part of the wider Klitschko era ?

He's Cuban. Up until 2022, Cuba did NOT allow Cubans to turn pro. A fighter would have to DEFECT if they wanted to go pro. That means you cant see your family or your kids or your friends, etc. Thats why all the Cubans went deep in the olympics bc it was their only way to making any kind of money in boxing.

 

Ortiz faced terrible opposition before Jennings, including a boxer in his pro debut in his 18th fight, when he was 17-0.

No one knew if Ortiz was really any good or not. He was smoking feeble opponents, similar but even worse than the opposition Prenga and Teremona have been fighting.

 

Given his real age the question should be why wasn't he a contender in the 1900s

 

cause he would have KO'd Wlad in 8.

 

Dempsey said he thought Ortiz was too old.....

 

He had already stopped two tough journeymen who rarely ever got stopped before his 5th pro fight, winning virtually every round. He clearly had skills and power, some of the guys Wlad defended against were absolute clowns. An unknown Cuban with a big amateur record who looked very good against the likes of Zack Page did not pass risk-reward.

 

Because he was 47.

 

He was talked about as a Wlad final fight beffore Fury derailed it. He had a personal ban and promotional issues. He turned down a belt eliminator to fight Wilder I think. He also inexplicably left himseopen to a9 Wilder k ockout punch when he was ahead.

Turned prp too late also I think.

 

He also popped for PED´s around then, which derailed his career a fair bit.

 

Yeh, that was my idiot phone predicting the word 'personal' from 'peds'. I remember that - it did him a lot of damage. I also think he has a fight against Ustinov lined up but he walked away from it and waited for Wilder ... didn't he have a shot at a Joshua fight and his manager asked for more money or something? Basically he made the least from his opportunities to make some waves, almost in all ways.

 

No, Joshua wasn't a thing for him. He had a couple fights with Hearn (Dave Allen and Malik Scott I think) but Hearn wasn't interested in getting him in the ring with Joshua.

When Miller dropped out of the Joshua fight, Ortiz had a chance to step in but he already ha the Wilder rematch lined up and went with that.

 

Given the Wilder treatment of being protected.

 

Joshua wasn't a thing for him?
Joshua who was unified WBA, WBO, IBF HW champion
I read Ortiz was offered the Joshua fight for a career high purse of 5M dollars but read he asked for 10M dollars.

The Wilder rematch was over 5 months later and I read his purse for that was around 1.5M dollars

Did Miller drop out?