By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Brian Custer asked Luis Ortiz exactly what many observers inside Edison Ballroom were thinking Thursday.
The Showtime announcer questioned why Ortiz was wearing a black glove on his right hand. Ortiz assured Custer that he doesn’t have a hand injury heading into his showdown with unbeaten WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder on Saturday night in Brooklyn.
The former WBA interim champion said he was wearing a glove because it was cold outside.
It was unseasonably warm in Manhattan on Thursday, nearly 60 degrees when the press conference took place. That’s not nearly as warm as it typically is in Miami, where the Cuban-born heavyweight lives and trains, but certainly not cold.
Nevertheless, Ortiz took the glove off his right hand, and opened and closed it repeatedly. Once the press conference ended, Ortiz put gloves on both hands, which prompted reporters to keep asking Ortiz about his hands.
His left hand, on which Ortiz didn’t wear a glove during the press conference, has a large, hard bump on the top of it. The lump could’ve come from calcium deposits and Ortiz insisted it doesn’t cause him any pain.
“It’s nothing,” Ortiz said. “It’s all good.”
In an effort to prove what he was saying, Ortiz pounded the protrusion on the top of his left hand with the bottom of his right fist five straight times.
Luis DeCubas Jr., an adviser to Ortiz, explained that the powerful southpaw has long had that bump on his left hand.
“His hand is 100-percent good,” DeCubas said. “He’s had that mark [on his hand] for over 20 years. They can talk about whatever they want – he’s had that for over 20 years, something on his hand like that. If you’re hitting people over the head for the last 30 years, you’re gonna have marks on your hands, too. That’s all it is.”
The 38-year-old Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs, 2 NC) will challenge Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round fight Showtime will air as the main event of a doubleheader from Barclays Center. Showtime’s telecast is set to start at 9 p.m. ET, when Andre Dirrell (26-2, 16 KOs), of Flint, Michigan, and Venezuela’s Jose Uzcategui (26-2, 22 KOs) will square off in a 12-round rematch for the IBF interim super middleweight title.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
