Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi believes the public is overlooking the danger of Cuban banger Luis Ortiz, who on Saturday night will challenge Deontay Wilder for the WBC heavyweight title.

Ortiz and Wilder will collide in a rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, as the main event of a Fox Sports Pay-Per-View.

They first clashed in March of 2018, with Wilder winning by way of a tenth round knockout.

The first time around, Ortiz had Wilder in serious trouble during the seventh round. Wilder rallied and dropped Ortiz twice in the tenth to close the show.

Malignaggi believes too many people are already looking ahead to Wilder's rematch with Tyson Fury - which is slated to take place in February of next year.

“I think people are getting ahead of themselves looking for Fury-Wilder [II], which I think is going to be a great fight if it happens,” Malignaggi told foxsports.com.au.

“But I think people are kind of sleeping on Ortiz. You know, Ortiz isn’t just a big, strong guy. He’s a guy who is technically sound as well, and I think him and Wilder had a terrific fight the first time around. I could see it getting kind of hairy again for both guys, and a little bit of a tricky fight for either guy. But of course trickier for Wilder in that he’s the one that’s expected to win.

“Wilder has to figure out a way to make his jab effective. In the first fight I thought Ortiz did a very good job of nullifying Wilder’s jab. If you’re able to nullify Wilder’s jab, he’s not able to set up the right hand the way he wants to. So you know, he’s got to go to other methods. And the other methods, once you force him to use them, sometimes are kind of limited for Wilder.

“He’s got incredible power when he sets up that right hand correctly, when he’s able to throw it straight and be balanced enough to throw it with power, he’s actually got probably the best power pound-for-pound when he’s able to do that.

“But when you put him off balance, or when you set him off balance, you prevent him from setting his distance properly by negating his jab. This is what Ortiz did that gave him trouble, and also what Fury did in their fight by having a better jab than him. It kind of eliminates his ability to set up the big power, especially in big spots."