https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLz1IgpLd0o
Undefeated heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz (26-0, 22 KOs) looked really poor in beating American Malik Scott (38-3-1 13 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Salle des Étoiles, in Monte Carlo. The final judges’ scores were 120-105, 120-106 and 119-106.
Ortiz, 37, looked old and incapable of cutting off the ring against the 36-year-old Scott. You have to wonder whether Matchroom Sport made the mistake in signing Ortiz. Scott ran the entire fight, but Ortiz should have been able to cut off the ring. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport might need to make a quick move in matching Ortiz against his top heavyweight Anthony Joshua as fast as possible before Ortiz gets beaten by one of the heavyweights he matches him against.
Ortiz flattened Scott three times in the fight in dropping him in the 4th, 5th and 9th rounds. Scott didn’t appear to be ever really hurt. He looked like he was playing to the referee on the first knockdown of the contest in the 4th, by holding the back of his head. The referee could have counted Scott out, because he was very slow in getting up from the knockdown. It appeared to this writer that Scott didn’t beat the count. The referee gave him the benefit of the doubt by not counting quickly.
Ortiz looked like he was incapable of throwing more than one or two punches at a time in the fight. He was loading up on every shot, and he didn’t have good enough punching power to take Scott out. Ortiz might have assumed that he could take Scott out in the same way he’d done with many of his past opponents by stopping them with single shots. Ortiz’s power might not be that good though, because he’d compiled most of his knockouts over poor fighters. Former two time world title challenger Tony Thompson says he wasn’t impressed with the talent or the power of Ortiz despite being knocked out by him in six rounds. Thompson may be right about Ortiz. His power seems to be overrated.
Ortiz is not going to go anywhere in the heavyweight division if he can;t throw sustained combinations, because he doesn’t have good enough power to KO the heavyweights with good chins.