Heavyweight 'King Kong' Ortiz making moves

Shortly after parting ways with Golden Boy, heavyweight Luis “King Kong” Ortiz has a busy schedule ahead of him with new promoter Matchroom Boxing. Ed Diller for ESPN

Dan Rafael
ESPN Senior Writer

Heavyweight contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, who just might be the best big man in the world if he could ever get a chance to prove it, seems to have his career on track again after a surprising split with Golden Boy Promotions.

Oscar De La Hoya’s company did a very good job with Ortiz and stuck with him after a positive steroid drug test that cost him an interim belt and a suspension. Ortiz came back from that situation very well.

Since the suspension, Ortiz has been randomly drug tested on a regular basis and has been clean while winning four fights in a row by exciting knockout. One fight was on HBO PPV (on last October’s Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux undercard) and the last two headlined on HBO — including his career-best performance, a one-sided seventh-round knockout of contender Bryant Jennings.

But for whatever reason, Ortiz and his team, including co-promoter Dade Promotions, and manager Jay Jimenez did not see eye-to-eye. Ultimately, they bought out the Golden Boy part of the promotional agreement for $1.1 million a few months ago and set out to find another promoter.

They had a deal in principle with Roc Nation Sports but wound up not finalizing it due to issues they could not settle. Last week, they made a deal with England’s Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, who promptly slotted Ortiz as the headliner of a Nov. 12 card at the Salle des Etoiles in Monte Carlo. There, he will face Philadelphia’s Malik Scott (38-2-1, 13 KOs), who has never lived up to his potential and got stopped in the first round by Deontay Wilder in March 2014.

Many believe Scott took a dive in that fight. Still, Scott has since won two fights in a row against decent opposition in former world title challengers Alex Leapai and Tony Thompson, both of whom got knocked out in their title fights by Wladimir Klitschko. Thompson also suffered Ortiz’s wrath in a March KO loss.

Now that Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs), a 37-year-old southpaw and Cuban defector, has his promotional situation squared away and a fight lined up, he got more good news on Monday when HBO announced it has acquired U.S. rights to the Nov. 12 fight. The network will air a single-fight telecast at 4 p.m. ET/PT with a replay that night at 11:05 p.m. ET/PT. It’s a one-off deal between HBO and Hearn, but it shows HBO’s interest in Ortiz.

“Fans know Luis Ortiz as a heavyweight knockout machine, and we’re happy to announce his showdown with Malik Scott from Monte Carlo live on our network on Nov. 12,” HBO executive vice president Peter Nelson said.

Jimenez said the team is happy to be in a good position after the recent uncertainty.

“We’re really pumped up and excited and looking forward to seeing Luis put on a good show,” Jimenez told ESPN. “We’re glad Malik took the fight because nobody else wants to fight Luis. And we are especially glad it will be on HBO. We think Peter Nelson really believes in Luis, that he can be a star and heavyweight champion.”

Jimenez said they came to an agreement with Hearn after a bit of back-and-forth, and they believe it was the right decision to sign with him.

“We had a deal with Roc Nation but we couldn’t completely agree on it,” Jimenez said. “We finally decided to go with Eddie. He seemed to believe in Luis a little more. You need somebody who believes in you.”

Jimenez said the plan with Hearn is to fight Nov. 12, come back quickly on Dec. 10 on the undercard of heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua’s next fight (which might be against Klitschko), and then return to the United States for a fight in New York in February.

“The most important thing was being active,” Jimenez said. “Being on HBO is [a bonus] but HBO seems to believe in him. This is great. It shows a lot on their part [that] they’re interested in working with him still. Now our job is to get Luis ready to fight.”
Jimenez believes activity can help make a star — that if fans and media see a fighter enough and like what they see, they will demand certain fights. He believes that is how Ortiz — who no contenders or titleholders even mention — will eventually get a big fight.

“He has been fighting for his minimum purses and really doesn’t even ask much about the money,” Jimenez said. “He really just wants that world title belt. Whoever has the belts he wants to fight, any of the belts out there. He wants Joshua, Wilder or whoever gets those other belts [that Tyson Fury vacated]. He tells me that every day. He just wants to stay healthy and get a shot at the belt.

“Even if those belt holders won’t fight him, Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz is aiming at being the people’s champ for now on.”