Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz will finally be afforded the chance he has craved for a lengthy period of time now. On March 4th, he will finally get a chance to become Cuba’s first world heavyweight champion when he challenges for Deontay Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title.
Ortiz and Wilder had been originally scheduled to meet in November 2017. But it was ruled he had taken a prohibited substance and the fight was called off.
However, since that ruling, the WBC overturned their decision and ruled that the botched test was simply down to prescribed blood pressure medication that Ortiz did not disclose the details of.
But speaking with boxingscene.com, Malignaggi shared his thoughts that we don’t know how much of an effect those doping allegations brought an extra element to Ortiz’s game.
“I think Ortiz comes from a really great pedigree. The Cuban amateur system, there are no Cubans who can’t fight.”
“I think it can always be a potentially fun fight whenever they’re involved.”
“They are really skilled fighters and skilled operators in the ring,” Malignaggi explained to BoxingScene.com.
“One thing I got to say though…. and nobody is saying this, it’s like the big gorilla in the room, the big elephant in the room.
“Ortiz, would he be as effective minus the PEDs? It seems like a lot of the big wins and a lot of the strength may have come from that.”
“The guy failed twice, maybe three times, and you have to start asking the question – how good is this guy if he’s clean?”
“Has he been caught every single time he did it?”
They call me the #BronzeBomber but I look best in green….. ✅💵👑 #BombZquad#SophiaTheBelt#WBCpic.twitter.com/R57BEXqpXO
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) January 18, 2018
“Odds are, if you are doping you probably doped and got away with it too. You are not getting caught every time you’re doping.”
“You have to wonder about this fight that we’re all getting excited about.
“Is the fight really that good or is Deontay naturally that much better?”
“Because we know Deontay stands for testing and a clean sport and pays for extra testing, and I think that’s why his opponents keep failing.”
“It’s eye-opening how dirty the sport can be,” Paulie added.
.@PaulMalignaggi advises McGregor to retire: Every way he goes – Pacquiao, Oscar, Me, Khabib and Ferguson – he gets his a** whooped! https://t.co/qHQBHvWhScpic.twitter.com/6wCffcFMUb
— Phil Jay (@PhilJWBN) January 23, 2018
“You don’t want to downplay Ortiz too much, because he does come from that amateur system and he does have skills – but is the power bulked up?
That’s my question, because he does have some quality knockouts over guys like Bryant Jennings, and he’s failed [drug tests] a handful of times already,” Malignaggi concluded.
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