Ortiz was an active member of the Cuban national team as an amateur from 1999 to 2008 with a record of 349-19. His best recorded amateur wins were over the heavyweight and cruiserweight fringe contender and LHW World Junior Champion southpaw Mike Perez (beat Dorticos, Y. Martinez, Egan, Munoz, Krause) HW Olympic silver medallist and SHW World Amateur Championship bronze medallist southpaw Zuyev/Zuyeu (beat Kapitonenko, Kossobutskiy, Veryasov, Sergeev, Pavlidis, Hrgovic) LHW Olympian Isael Alvarez (beat Makarenko, O. Anderson, Fragomeni, R. Hernandez, A. Stewart) SHW Pan American Games gold medallist Robert Alphonso x2 (beat E. Savon, M. Lopez, Rivas, Ruiz, Hunter, Fayzullin) and SHW Olympic bronze medallist Michel Lopez (beat Rivas, Zhang, J. Estrada, Solis x2, Wlad). Ortiz’s best amateur accomplishments were winning the Pan American Games in 2005 and the Cuban National Championships in 2006, both at HW. Ortiz started boxing at 10 years old and turned pro in 2010, officially 31 years old. Wlad won 117-110 in America against mover Jennings before Ortiz fought him, Ortiz got a 7th round KO over the 6th Ring ranked, un-KO’d Jennings (230 lbs) in a competitive fight that he was winning, Rivas got a 12th round KO over Jennings in a competitive fight that he was losing and Joyce won 117-110 in Britain. Jennings’ best wins were stopping Liakhovich, Fedosov and 16-0 Szpilka and outpointing the 20-0-1 top 9 Ring ranked Mike Perez. Pulev won 116-112 in Germany against a washed up Tony Thompson and Takam won 117-111 in France before Ortiz dropped southpaw SHW Thompson (264 lbs) three times on route to a 6th round KO. Ortiz pitched a shutout against mover Malik Scott (247 lbs) and dropped him three times; Scott had defeated Sultan Ibragimov and won the U.S. National Championships as an amateur, was robbed with a draw against Glazkov, was up on the cards against Chisora in Britain before a controversial 6th round stoppage and outboxed Thompson before Ortiz fought him. Whyte pitched a shutout against the iron-chinned Dave Allen before Ortiz TKO'd the un-KO’d Allen (259 lbs) inside 7 in Britain and Yoka TKO’d him inside 10 in France two years later. Ortiz (who Hearn was “promoting” at the time) fought Allen on the undercard of AJ-Molina in late 2016; AJ-Ortiz and Allen-Molina would have been far more competitive fights but Hearn didn't want to take any unnecessary risks with his cash cow (or even AJ’s bodyguard Whyte) so he protected AJ from Ortiz and threw Allen to the wolves. Parker won 117-110 against late sub Cojanu in NZ, SHW Cojanu (269 lbs) then got KO'd inside 2 rounds by Ortiz, was KO'd again inside two rounds by Dubois in Britain and the most worn version was TKO'd in 9 by Ajagba. A 34.75 year old Arreola was dropped and got a robbery SD against Travis Kauffman, Kauffman went on to lose a close MD to southpaw Amir Mansour before Kauffman (229 lbs) fought Ortiz, who pitched a shutout against him, dropped him three times and TKO’d him in the 10th round. Ortiz pitched a shutout against mauler Hammer (258 lbs) a Junior World Champion at HW who had beaten Michael Hunter and Teper in the amateurs, as well as K. Johnson, Teper and Price in the pros. A younger, less worn Povetkin also pitched a shutout against Hammer in Russia and Yoka went on to do the same in France. Charles Martin KO’d Alexander Flores in 10 minutes and 14 seconds and Parker KO’d Flores in 8 minutes and 51 seconds before Ortiz KO’d Flores (232 lbs) in 45 seconds. Ortiz is a very skilled, 6'4, 240 lbs southpaw with extensive high level amateur pedigree, an 82% KO ratio (excluding NC's/DQ's) across 28 pro fights against 215+ lbs opponents, 6 of the KO’s came in the 1st round and he was a top 5 or top 6 Ring ranked heavyweight from 2015-2021. Ortiz's best win is his 7th round KO over 6th Ring ranked Jennings, he never needed a controversial decision and he's only lost twice in 34 fights (both times in the 2nd half to the 5 year reigning, 10 defence WBC champion Wilder by KO) on both occasions proving to be Wilder's most challenging and dangerous opponent aside from Fury. I would strongly favour the never-dropped, 28-0 (24 KO’s, 2 DQ’s) 39 year old Wilder 1 version of Ortiz to beat Ruiz, Parker, Whyte, Chisora, Hunter and maybe an older but non-shot Povetkin, based on comparative performances and body types/styles and I’d favour the Jennings version to beat AJ. Although Odlanier Solis was a much more successful amateur, Ortiz is the best Cuban professional heavyweight of all time.
Why was Ortiz so heavily avoided? He is a skilled Cuban amateur, a southpaw, 6’4, 240 lbs, has a lot of power, fast hands, co-ordination, is aggressive, highly experienced, mentally tough, a top 5 or 6 Ring HW for 6 years, beat top 6 Ring ranked Jennings very impressively, beat domestic and European level fighters more comprehensively than rival contenders, hadn’t been dropped, undefeated (28-0, 24 KO's, 2 DQ’s) old (no one wants to lose to grandpa or gets as much credit for beating him up) relatively unknown, doesn’t speak English, no charisma, countrymen only care about amateur boxing, there’s relatively little money in an Ortiz fight and if you beat him, other contenders would duck you. In 2019 Abel Sanchez said that he turned down a fight with a post-Wilder 1, officially 40 year old Ortiz for his charge: the de-facto SHW gold medallist, 33 year old, 7-0 pro Joe Joyce. Even Hearn said recently that "no one wants to fight Ortiz" and this is an officially 42.5 year old Ortiz. Like Hrgovic or Makhmudov these days, high risk, low reward.
