On Saturday, March 5, 2016 hard-hitting Cuban heavyweight, Luis “The Real King Kong” Oritz (24-0, 21 KOs) brings his exciting brand of boxing to the nation’s capital for an HBO Boxing After Dark fight card.
The event will take place at the legendary DC Armory and will also feature a clash of Welterweight’s between Sadam Ali and Jessie Vargas, as well as undefeated Golden Boy Promotion’s prospects Lamont Roach and D’Mitrius “Big Meech” Ballard.
The 36-year-old Ortiz, is fresh off his stoppage victory over Heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings on HBO in December and is anxious to face the upper-echelon of the division in 2016.
Roach was featured on some of boxing’s best cards in 2015, earning victories on the Lucas Matthysse vs. Ruslan Provodnikov card as well as the Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemiux card. The 11-time amateur national champion went 4-0 overall last year and looks to continue his ascension to the top with a strong performance in front of his hometown crowd on March 5.
Like his stablemate Roach, Ballard also went 4-0 in 2015 and showed that he isn’t just a knockout artist, showing his patience and boxing ability in decision victories over Josue “Chiquilin” Ovando, Juan Carlos “Chiflado” Rojas and Fabiano “Pit Bull” Pena.
Update: 1/31/16
According to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, Ortiz will be facing Alexander Dimitrenko for the interim WBC Heavyweight title on March 5.
Dimitrenko accepted the bout after a number of recognizable names turned down the opportunity to face the hard-hitting Cuban.
According to Rafael, Andy Ruiz, Andrey Fedosov, Carlos Takam, Alexander Ustinov and Bermane Stiverne were all offered the fight but turned it down.
Update: 2/6/16
A week after an agreement was in place to have Dimitrenko face Ortiz on March 5, ESPN’s Dan Rafael reports that the Russian Heavyweight has backed out of the fight.
As of now, the fight date is still set, but Ortiz is now in search of a quality opponent.
According to Rafael, promoter Greg Cohen helped broker the deal for Dimitrenko to face Ortiz and he was very disappointment that Dimitrenko backed out.
“I thought we had a deal and expected the fight to be made,” said Cohen.
“In the 11th hour unrealistic financial requests were made and I immediately notified Golden Boy of the change of heart. To their credit, [Golden Boy] did come up with a structure to pay him more money in an effort to keep the fight intact, but the kid was unwilling to sign a contract. Very disappointing.”
Poster by Keystone Boxing
