Luis Ortiz’s left hand swollen due to calcium deposits

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow

The lump on Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz’s left hand isn’t a problem for him, according to his trainer Herman Caicedo. He told RingTV that Ortiz has 25 years of calcium deposits in his left hand.

It’s unclear why Ortiz hasn’t had surgery to reduce the amount of calcium that has formed on the face of his hand. The lump on Ortiz’s left hand has been there for years. In looking at pictures of Ortiz’s left hand before his fight with Bryant Jennings in December 2015, the lump was noticeable even back then. So obviously this is not a new problem for Ortiz. He’s been fighting with the lump on his left hand for over 2 years and it hasn’t negatively impacted his performances in his fights.

Ortiz wears gloves frequently, so it’s hard to see how swollen in appearance his left hand is. Ortiz hasn’t complained about his hand being a problem for him.

Ortiz will be facing WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This is Ortiz’s big chance. He’s got to be 100 percent for him to have a chance of beating Wilder.

“It’s nothing,” Caicedo said to RingTV.com. “25 years of calcium deposits.”
With a lump as big as the one in Ortiz’s left hand, you would think that he would have had it removed at some point. It looks like a mountain on Ortiz’s left hand.

Ortiz’s main weapon is his left hand. We had to hope that Caicedo is being on the level in saying that Ortiz’s swollen-looking left hand isn’t a problem, because if it is, he’s not going to do well fighting with just partial strength in his left hand or him using just his right hand.

To show that Ortiz doesn’t have a problem with his power, he has a message for Deontay Wilder:
”You’re going to be in tremendous danger.”

Wilder knows what he’s up against in this fight with the powerful southpaw Ortiz. Wilder wouldn’t have allowed his weight to drop down to 214 lbs. if he wasn’t concerned with the boxing skills, power and the overall threat the Cuban Ortiz brings to him. This is a major fight for Wilder. Before his last fight against Bermane Stiverne, Wilder was care free and relaxed the week of the fight. Wilder clearly didn’t view the 39-year-old Stiverne as a threat to beating him in their November 4th fight. But now we’re seeing Wilder facing an equally old 38-year-old Ortiz, and he seems to be very nervous about the fight. The way Wilder talks suggest that he’s concerned. He’s edgy, not relaxed like before, and no longer telling jokes the way he did in the past.

To show how much respect Wilder has about the talent of Ortiz, he says he views him as having better technical boxing skills than former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko. Wilder says Ortiz was never given the chance to show what he could do the way Wladimir was. Wladimir won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics, and he was given a world title shot as a pro after just 4 years against WBO heavyweight champion Chris Byrd in 2000. In contrast, Ortiz never made it to the Olympics as a Cuban amateur despite finishing his career with an impressive 349-19 record. There was too much competition in Cuba for Ortiz to get on an Olympic team.

As a pro, Ortiz has been toiling away for 8 years now without having been given a title shot. The match-making for Ortiz has been less what it should have been. Ortiz’s management hasn’t set him up with the same opportunities we saw with Wladimir and Anthony Joshua. Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn setup Joshua for a world title shot after just 3 years as a pro in putting him in with IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin in April 2016. There’s no question that if Ortiz was given the same opportunity Joshua had been in facing Martin in 2016, he would have knocked him out as well and he’d be a world champion today. Joshua has faced only 1 good heavyweight during his 2-year reign as a world champion and that’s Wladimir. Joshua took advantage of Wladimir’s age (41) and his 2-year period of inactivity.

”I don’t know who’s the most dangerous one of those 2,” Wilder said to skysports.com in comparing Ortiz to Wladimir. ”You can’t say one is more than the other, because one (Klitschko) had a more solid career than the other one. Ortiz never really had the opportunity to prove himself against the best, just like me. I tell you this though: Ortiz definitely had more fundamental skills than Wladimir Klitschko. Wladimir may be a bit stronger, but it’s hands down, Luis Ortiz has much more boxing skills than he did,”Wilder said.

Wilder knows what kind of talent Wladimir possesses, as he was a sparring partner for him in 2014 in assisting him to get ready for his title defense against Kubrat Pulev. Wilder got a chance to test the kind of punching power and boxing skills Wladimir possessed back them. Some would say that 2014 was the end of Wladimir’s prime, as he lost to Tyson Fury in November 2015 and looked very much like a shot fighter. The fact that Wladimir was able to give Joshua so many problems in their fight in April 2014 was more of a case of AJ not having the stamina, boxing skills or the chin to deal with what he was facing inside the ring. Joshua still won the fight, but only because Wladimir let him survive after having him hurt and gassed out in the 6th. Ortiz has skills and courage that makes him a better fighter than Wladimir. What Ortiz lacks is the hand speed that Wladimir possessed. Even at 41, Wladimir was faster than Joshua. When Wladimir was younger, his hand speed was very good and his accuracy with his shots was impressive. When Wladimir got older, his accuracy deteriorated and he wasn’t willing to let his shots go for fear of missing and being countered. In Wladimir’s fights with Jennings and Fury, he wasn’t letting his hands go because he was afraid of missing and getting countered. That was a product of Wladimir’s decreased punch accuracy. Ortiz hasn’t shown a tendency to miss with his shots the way Wladimir was when he got up there in age, but his hands much slower than the Ukrainian’s.

Joshua will be watching tonight’s Wilder-Ortiz fight, as he’ll be facing the winner of the contest sooner or later. He’ll be doing his homework to spot the vulnerabilities of these guys. Wilder could still wind up as an opponent for Joshua in the future even if he loses. There are not a lot of viable options for Joshua to fight in terms of big named fighters in the division. As long as Wilder doesn’t start taking losses one after another after the Ortiz fight, he’ll wind up as an opponent for him at some point. Wilder coming into the Ortiz fight weighing just 214 pounds, it makes him vulnerable against Ortiz and Joshua. It also shows that Wilder isn’t being monitored closely enough by his training team to prevent mistakes like this. Being this low weight is a red flag that Wilder’s team has not been on top of his training the way they need to be. If they haven’t been monitoring Wilder’s weight properly, then he needs to think about getting new trainers that are capable of being observant enough to spot these problems.

 

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