The one thing on which Luis Ortiz and Charles Martin agree is there being little chance of their fight going the distance.
Miami’s Ortiz enjoys a home game for the first major boxing card of the New Year, taking on a former IBF titlist in Martin (28-2-1, 25KOs) atop an all-heavyweight Fox Sports Pay-Per-View card Saturday evening from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The rare matchup of heavyweight southpaws features two heavy-handed contenders with just seven of their combined 67 career fights going to the scorecards.
Neither have any intention of letting this one go all 12 rounds.
“Charles Martin is entering the ring with bad intentions,” Ortiz told BoxingScene.com ahead of their IBF title eliminator. I expect an explosive fight from him but I’m coming to knock him out.”
Ortiz (32-2, 27KOs) has amassed a mere 45 seconds of official ring time since the pandemic, needing that little amount of time to rid himself of Alexander Flores last November in Los Angeles. The bout was his first since his repeat knockout loss to then-unbeaten WBC heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41KOs), winning virtually every second of their November 2019 Fox Sports PPV main event before Wilder landed a potent right hand to end the fight on the spot in the seventh round.
Wilder and Martin are two of the few heavyweight opponents Ortiz has faced to boast a superior knockout to win ratio heading into their fight. Martin has earned 25 knockouts in 28 wins (89.3%), including a sixth-round stoppage of Gerald Washington in February 2020—his last ring appearance prior to Saturday. Ortiz has scored knockouts in 28 of his 32 wins (84.4%) and was extended the distance just three times in his career, with two wins coming by way of disqualification.
Most heavyweight fights carry the threat of ending with a single punch, a claim Ortiz has heard from seemingly every opponent to date. Only one—Wilder (twice) has been able to follow through on that promise.
“Whenever an opponent says there will be a knockout, it makes me smile,” admits Ortiz. “Everyone claims they’re gonna knock me out, at least the ones who actually have the (courage) to face me.
“But once you step through those ropes, anything can happen. Whatever is the game plan for Charles Martin, he needs to be aware that he’s facing a dangerous fighter who can adapt to any situation.”
The five-fight PPV is available for purchase through Fox Sports and its providers as well as Fite TV (Saturday, 8:00 pm ET, SRP $39.99).
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox