Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua vs. Luis Ortiz Ordered By The WBA

[NahMean]

So we'll see which one AJ chooses. The weaker threat in Pulev or Ortiz. I expect AJ to make the duck of Ortiz official and fight Pulev.

Both Pulev and Ortiz will be AJ's second best opponent after Klitschko.. Both are good fights.. Ortiz is a better fight but AJ beats both of them.

[DaaamnSon]

Can't see why he can't fight both Pulev and Ortiz before the end of the year and then unify all four belts next year against Wilder and Parker.

[Dle]

I think Ortiz has a little more than solid power. He has a little bit of untapped boxing ability that he's not accredited for. So AJ will pass on him.

[Dr_Calvin]

Joshua has 2 strong mandos to fight on a strict timeline. I don't know if Wilder has actually fought a mando at all yet? Not entirely his fault with 2 fights being scratched at late notice but still seems unfair.

[N/A]

That would be weak. If he had to choose between one, why would he take the lower ranked fighter?

Because this is the business of minimizing risk and maximizing reward.

But also, because Hearn is tighter with the IBF than he is with the WBA, the IBF if Joshua's first belt, and winning the WBA this early was never part of the plan.

[N/A]

So if he fights Ortiz, IBF straps him.. If he fights Ortiz, WBA strip him? This is bul****.. I hope he doesn't get stripped.. These sanctioning bodies make it impossible to unify all the belts! He can't fight both guys at the same time.

Keeping the belts unified is very simple. Fight lots of mandatories. That's what Klitschko did and had no problem keeping them unified. Keeping the belts unified was more important to him than maximizing revenue, and thus, the belts remained unified for many years.

The belts splintered because Tyson Fury preferred more money for a Klitschko rematch than keeping the belts together.

If the belts splinter again, it's because Joshua preferred more money for a Klitschko rematch than keeping the belts together.

With that said, the organizations desperately need to approve a process to create unified mandatories when a champion holds multiple titles. If there was a mechanism in place to force Pulev to fight King Kong to become unified mandatory, boxing would be much better off.

And then you couldn't duck the winner because if you did, you'd get stripped of both belts instead of just one.

We've proposed this idea to the WBC and the president was receptive, but the other organizations are not interested.

[Fabes88]

I agree with you. He made a mistake, was wrong and has paid the price for it; A nine month suspension by the NSAC to be exact. Besides, that was several years ago. However, more importantly, he is now currently signed up to the Vada/WBC clean boxing program. He is a clean fighter now. Therefore, there is no reasonable justification to deprive him of what is rightfully his.

What I find so ironic is that there have been several scores of fighters who've juiced in the past and have never been caught or punished before to this day for it, but yet still went on to become mandatory challengers, title holders, champions and multiple weight division titleholders.

innocent until proven guilty

[Heromaker]

Ortiz is the great unknown here and the most exciting matchup for any belt holder in my opinion. Wilder may have dodged a bullet here. I think Joshua wins but this should may be his hardest fight aside from Klitchko. Ortiz has shown greatness he's just never been up against an elite guy before. I would buy the ppv on this . The Pulev fight doesn't do anything for me. Ortiz , Wilder and Tyson are the best challengers IMO

[Heromaker]

Great ideas there. This sport is crooked so it's unlikely this will ever happen. If the belts could get it in their head that it would make just as much money or more in the long run maybe it would happen. I'm not sure that's the case though , I don't know

[taste]

Excellent fight that I would love to see yesterday!! Very hard to predict a winner here for me, as Ortiz will have AJ doing things alot different than he did against Vlad...