By Elisinio Castillo
WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder had the biggest scare of his professional career back in March, when he was badly hurt in the seventh round of his defense against Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs), which took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wilder was able to recover, scoring two knockdowns in the tenth round to stop Ortiz.
A few weeks ago, the WBC ordered Ortiz and Dillian Whyte to face each other in a final eliminator for a secondary mandatory shot. The first mandatory shot has been secured by Dominic Breazeale - who may face Wilder in the coming months.
Ortiz is very excited about the idea of facing Whyte.
"I thank God for the opportunity, my team and the World Boxing Council for making this fight mandatory, because it gives me the opportunity to fight for a title, which is the only thing that counts in the end," Ortiz told George Ebro.
"[Whyte is] just getting in the way of accomplishing my objective, which is to fight Wilder again. I have a knife in my heart and I want to take it out, because it's still something that hurts."
That fight may or may not happen, as Whyte was also ordered to face Kubrat Pulev in a final eliminator under the IBF.
If Ortiz is able to secure another crack at Wilder - he promises to fix all of the mistakes that he made in the first bout - like getting a little too wild when he had Wilder in serious trouble.
"I do not know if it was the excitement of fighting for the title, but I lost a bit of focus. The plan we had... I don't know... in a second meeting things are going to be different, I can assure you," Ortiz said.
"I do not know what I can tell you, I just wanted to tear Wilder's head off. I didn't want to think about whether or not I was winning or losing the fight, all I wanted was to rip his head off, that was the only plan."
"If I win this fight [with Whyte] - I will be closer to Wilder. The first thing is to win this fight and show the world that King Kong is still here."
