‘The Bronze Bomber’ Deontay Wilder came through the sternest test of his career to date against Cuban Luis Ortiz at the Barclays Center in New York last night.
Wilder successfully retained his WBC heavyweight crown after scoring a victory in the tenth round via a TKO.
Wilder’s record now reads a menacing 40-0 with all but one of those victories coming by way of knockout.
Wilder not only overcame the biggest hurdle of his professional career thus far.
Long live the king…. #BombZquadpic.twitter.com/QW5KrCLA2i
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) March 4, 2018
The action started in tentative fashion, with both combatants easing their way into the bout.
The fight burst into life in the fifth round, however when Deontay Wilder demonstrated the great equalizer of knockout punching power he has at his disposal.
He sent the man they dubbed ‘King Kong’ to the canvas in the fifth following his trademark right hand.
He overcame one of the most shaky moments of his professional career.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ answered many lingering questions over his toughness and inner grit by making it out of an enthralling seventh round.
Wilder was shaken to the core by a thudding right hook which left him disorientated and in desperate need of a brief reprieve.
Baddest man on the planet. #WilderOrtizpic.twitter.com/R15Oi7Wd9X
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) March 4, 2018
Ortiz was like a shark smelling blood, he dug deep into his resolve to turned up the heat on his opponent.
Ortiz was basically annihilating his opponent who was basically out on his feet with a barrage of blows, in an attempt at trying to force the stoppage.
Wilder was still visibly shaken as he headed back to his corner following the bell to end the round.
Ortiz continued to pile on the pressure in the eighth round as Wilder appeared still in the process of shaking off the cobwebs.
Wilder began to mount his comeback in the ninth round as he once again started to find a home for his right hand on his Cuban adversary’s head.
A powerful right hand had the Cuban on his heels again, Wilder followed that up by ending the round with a hurtful looking combination.
Both fighters made the call to duke it out as the fight entered the championship rounds.
Both men were looking for that killer blow and both men were wobbled as they absorbed one another’s heavy artillery.
Successive right hands finally made the breakthrough for ‘The Bronze Bomber’ in the tenth.
Ortiz’s belief and gas tank seemed to be flailing at this point but he gamely made it back up to his feet.
However, Wilder refused to let Ortiz off the hook and he sought to unload another heavy fusillade of blows which culminated with a dynamite uppercut on the point of Ortiz’s chin putting the Cuban southpaw down for the third and final time.
Referee David Fields saw fit to stop the fight at 2:05 of the round.
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