Unbeaten American heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder takes on undefeated Cuban challenger Luis Ortiz in a battle of power punchers fighting to keep their unblemished record. Also, Andre Dirrell will rematch Jose Uzcategui live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Showtime championship boxing.
Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) also known as the “Bronze Bomber” was originally scheduled to fight Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) in 2017 but the fight fell through due to Ortiz failing a VADA drug test for banned substances. Wilder went on to rematch Bermane Stiverne knocking him out cold in round one.
Ortiz came back on December 8, 2017 and knocked out Daniel Martz, Wilder was at the event to call out the Cuban Olympian in the ring, in January the two came to an agreement to finally meet in the ring on March 3 at the Barclays in Brooklyn.
Wilder wants to punish Ortiz for using Performance Enhancing Drugs, and Ortiz wants to teach Wilder to respect his name after all of the trash talk thrown his way.
Andre Dirrell (26-2, 16 KOs) and Jose Uzcategui (26-2, 22 KOs) first battled on May of 2017, the fight was a very dirty with a lot of rough house tactics, it ended in controversy with Uzcategui getting DQ’d for an illegal blow hitting Dirrell after the bell.
The controversy didn’t end there, Dirrell’s head trainer and Uncle Leon Lawson went over to Uzcategui after the fight was stopped and sucker punched him bare knuckle. Lawson will not be in his nephew’s corner tonight. The bout will again take place at the 168 pound super middleweight limit.
Watch Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz live on March 3, 2018 at 9 PM on SHOWTIME.
