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Luis Ortiz will end nearly a one-year layoff against a considerably less dangerous opponent than Deontay Wilder.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the heavyweight contender and Scott Alexander have agreed to fight November 7. The Ortiz-Alexander bout is expected to be part of the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Chris Arreola undercard.
FOX will air Ruiz-Arreola and Ortiz-Alexander as part of a tripleheader that could be held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The site of the November 7 card could change if fans are allowed to attend boxing events in the United States by then.
The site aside, the 41-year-old Ortiz will fight for the first time since last November 23 when he squares off against Alexander. The hard-hitting Cuban southpaw hasn’t boxed since Wilder, then the WBC champion, knocked him out in the seventh round of their rematch at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Ortiz was ahead on all three scorecards – 59-55, 59-55 and 58-56 – when Wilder drilled him with a right hand that knocked Ortiz flat on his back. Ortiz tried to get up before referee Kenny Bayless’ count reached 10, but Bayless stopped their scheduled 12-round bout because Ortiz was disoriented.
Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC) has been beaten only by Wilder, who lost his title in his subsequent bout to Tyson Fury. Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) knocked out Ortiz in the 10th round of their first fight, which occurred in March 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Between his losses to Wilder, Ortiz defeated Razvan Cojanu, Travis Kauffman and Christian Hammer in successive fights.
Los Angeles’ Alexander (16-3-2, 8 KOs) has won each of his two fights since Kauffman beat him by majority decision in their 10-rounder two years ago in Lancaster, California.
Kauffman (32-4, 23 KOs, 1 NC), of Reading, Pennsylvania, defeated Alexander on two scorecards when they met in June 2018. Alexander and Kauffman each scored a knockdown apiece during the first round of that bout.
In his most recent action, Alexander overcame Mexican southpaw Luis Rodriguez (7-27-2, 0 KOs) by split decision in an eight-rounder February 29 in Tijuana, Rodriguez’s hometown.
If the favorites, Ruiz and Ortiz, win November 7, they might be matched sometime in 2021. The Athletic first reported last month that Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs), a former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champ, and Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs, 2 NC) agreed to square off at some point late in 2020 in a battle between Mexican-American contenders from Southern California.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.