By Steve Kim
Despite unsuccessful attempts to match up heavyweight Luis Ortiz against Bryant Jennings and then Bermane Stiverne, he will remain on the card taking place at the Madison Square Garden in New York on October 17th that features the middleweight unification tilt between Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux.
"As far as Luis Ortiz, we're a couple of days from wrapping up a new opponent," said Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker, Robert Diaz.
"We've gone through a long list, obviously Bermane Stiverne was our number one choice being that he has world-wide recognition, big puncher, it would've fit perfectly with the other fighters as far as a bombs away-type of war.
"We went through Bryant Jennings, we went through Sergey Fedosov and a lot of guys, I don't blame them. They didn't want to jump in line to say, 'Yeah, I'll fight Luis Ortiz.' A lot of them are talking,' Yeah, I'll fight him but it has to be a million dollars,' c'mon, you're coming off a loss and just because you went the distance it doesn't mean you deserve a huge payday. Get back in line, beat a guy and you're deserving of it."
(Diaz seems to be referring to Jennings, who lost a 12-round decision to heavyweight champion, Wladmir Klitschko back in late April.)
The Cuban southpaw has a mark of 22-0(19 KO's). Last September he stopped Lateef Kayode in one round for the WBA interim heavyweight belt but that fight was eventually ruled a 'no-contest' as Ortiz failed a post-fight drug test for having steroids in his system. Diaz last fought on June 20th in Montreal where he knocked out Byron Polley in the first stanza.
Diaz says he will stay on the pay-per-view portion of the show, adding:
"We have a guy now, we're waiting on a contract and we'll be announcing soon. He obviously had to be rated in the top 15 (of the WBA). It wasn't our first choice, again, we went through a long list. Not too many guys want to fight Luis Ortiz."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.