By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Luis Ortiz hopes to fight the winner of the highly anticipated Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight showdown.
Ortiz made that more than clear Thursday, when he came to Manhattan to promote his April 22 bout against Derric Rossy. The powerful Cuban southpaw isn’t overlooking Rossy (31-12, 15 KOs), but he expects to win their fight impressively at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to make sure he can continue moving toward the type of championship challenges he really wants.
“I’m ready to fight [Joshua or Klitschko] right now,” Ortiz said through a translator before a press conference Thursday. “I’m waiting for the opportunity to fight the winner of Anthony Joshua versus Wladimir Klitschko. They better get ready, because ‘King Kong’ will be waiting for them.”
The 38-year-old Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs, 2 NC) began working with British promoter Eddie Hearn last year because he had hoped it would help him get closer to fighting Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs), the emerging British star Hearn promotes. Ortiz boxed twice within four weeks late last year, but felt he needed to sign with powerful manager Al Haymon once respective victories over Malik Scott and David Allen on November 12 and December 10 didn’t lead to the type of opportunities Ortiz sought.
Haymon signed Ortiz on Wednesday and his fight against Rossy quickly was added to an April 22 card that’ll feature a main event between former welterweight champions Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs) and Andre Berto (31-4, 24 KOs). The Ortiz-Rossy fight will be televised either as part of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader or as one of the undercard bouts that will be broadcast by SHO Extreme before the Showtime telecast starts.
“I’m eager to fight either one,” Ortiz said in reference to Joshua and Klitschko. “These are the type of fights that people wanna see. But in the end, Al Haymon, he will make that decision.”
Ortiz expects the battle between England’s Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) and Ukraine’s Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) to be a very competitive April 29, when they’ll box before an enormous crowd of approximately 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London. The former interim WBA world heavyweight champion slightly favors Klitschko, who’s about a 2-1 underdog according to the official odds on the fight.
“Sometimes the youth will beat the experience,” Ortiz said. “But sometimes youth does lack that experience. And therefore, I give a nod to Klitschko, based on that, to win the fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
