Luis Ortiz Hopes Activity Level Doesn't Slow Down Anytime Soon

By Jake Donovan

There's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes with being the one fighter in your division whom few others wish to face. The cost, however, comes in not remaining as active as you wish, as you can't have a fight without an opponent manning the opposite corner.

The latter is a reality that Luis Ortiz may soon have to face.

For now, the 36-year old southpaw is enjoying a steady stream of fights every 3-4 months. The latest effort proved to be a challenge for Golden Boy Promotions, who ran through an extensive list of candidates before veteran Tony Thompson accepted the call earlier this week. The two will collide on March 5 at the D.C. Armory in Thompson's hometown of Washington D.C., with HBO to televise. 

Fighting on the road is of lesser concern to Ortiz than the thought of hardly fighting at all.

"It's something we might have to consider in the future, sure," Ortiz (24-0, 21KOs) admitted, though not to his liking. "As long as I can keep fighting, I'm happy. It's not something we have to worry about right now, but are prepared for when that day comes."

The reigning interim titlist from Miami by way of Cuba is coming off of a 7th round knockout of perennial Top 10 contender Bryant Jennings last December, which marked his first career HBO main event. That fight took two tries to finalize, with Jennings holding out from an original offer to face him last October in favor of a better offer that included his demand for random drug testing.

Ortiz - who served a suspension due to a failed drug test in a 1st round knockout-turned-No-Contest versus Lateef Kayode in Sept. '14 - understood the concern and was willing to comply, taking care of Jennings in dominant fashion to emerge as a leading heavyweight.

The latest batch of potential challengers refused the fight for reasons ranging from not having enough time to train, to wanting more money, to flat out refusing to take the fight altogether.

"It's amazing, the number of heavyweights out there we've contacted, some of whom just didn't even want to hear his name mentioned," Golden Boy head matchmaker Roberto Diaz told BoxingScene.com of the efforts in securing this fight. "We asked Alexander Ustinov (Ortiz' mandatory), Carlos Takam, Dereck Chisora. We thought we had something with (Alexander) Dimitrenko, but then that fell through.

"Thankfully, we were able to get Thompson, who was calling out Luis for a couple of weeks and was willing to take the chance to back up his words."

Of course, there are few fighters like Thompson (40-6, 27KOs) who are always willing to take any given fight on short notice. Ortiz remains prepared for such scenarios, training literally year-round and never really paying as much attention to the opponent or style as much as the opportunity to get in the ring. He's fortunate to be able to remain active, this serving as his fourth fight in nine months since returning from his suspension.

Looming ahead is the seven-man World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight consolidation tournament, which is designed to reduce the number of WBA titlists from three to one. Ortiz is due to face Ustinov in the opening round of the competition, althought it already appears that such a fight is destined to head to a purse bid. A victory will put him in line to face the winner of the eventual rematch between World heavyweight king Tyson Fury and former champ Wladimir Klitschko.

All that seems great in theory, but remains an uncertaintity for as long as there doesn't exist documented proof of any of the aforementioend going through with the proposed fights. For now, all Ortiz can - and wishes to - do is control his own destiny.

"I want to fight all of the best heavyweights out there," Ortiz says. "I can't worry about who doesn't want to fight me, I just want to focus on the fights that I can get, even if it means one day only fighting every six months or so."

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox