Tony Thompson's Godzilla-sized challenge: Taking on King Kong, Luis Ortiz
WASHINGTON, D.C. - It's not because Luis Ortiz is unfriendly or unlikable that some people want to avoid him.
It's more because Ortiz is a 6-foot-4, 245-pound monster of a man - he's nicknamed "The Real King Kong" for a reason- with a more muscular and powerful upper body than any fighter this side of Deontay Wilder.
King Kong packs awesome power in his right hand, and he's a natural southpaw. Imagine what's coming from the piston on his other shoulder. You could ask Bryant Jennings, a top-notch heavyweight whom Ortiz pounded into submission inside of seven rounds in December.
Ortiz is a product of the Cuban school of boxing, which means he started very young and learned every aspect of the sport. He fought 362 times as an amateur, winning 343 of them. He is 24-0 with 20 KOs as a professional, which didn't begin until he was 30, after escaping Cuba.
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He doesn't lose much.
That's what's so scary about this 36-year-old knockout machine. He can box and he can punch. Big. King Kong's reach is 84 inches. That's a 7-foot wingspan. By comparison, Muhammad Ali's was 78 inches, Mike Tyson, 71.
The Ortiz avoiders are most of the rest of the heavyweight division. Hall of Fame heavyweight George Foreman, one of the biggest punchers of all time, said he would not want to fight Ortiz in a dream, let alone for real.
Nobody, it seems, wants to fight this man.
Except for Tony Thompson. A big, affable man with a quick wit, Thompson fancies himself Godzilla to Ortiz's King Kong.
The 44-year-old heavyweight from Washington got a call three weeks ago and was asked, how would you like to fight Luis Ortiz in your hometown?
Why would he even consider such a fight, you ask?
"Because the opportunity in my hometown was too great to pass up," he told Paste BN Sports on Friday. "They kept saying - falsely - that nobody wanted to fight him. But they never called Tony Thompson until about three weeks before the fight."
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So Thompson, who admits he hadn't been in the gym until he got that call, took the fight - Saturday night (HBO, 10 p.m. ET) at the D.C. Armory- against one of the most avoided big men on the planet with at most three weeks to prepare.
"I don't live a bad lifestyle. My lifestyle is active so that's why you see what you see now," Thompson said. "That's why when they said it was a go, we turned it on and I feel wonderful. I don't think an 8-to-10 week training camp is good for me anyway at my age."
Thompson (40-6, 27 KOs) acknowledges that Ortiz has skills, power and ring smarts. "But you tell me who haven't I fought with those things in the last 30 fights?" he said. "I think the biggest difference is he's never seen anyone like me."
He has a point.
Thompson, who has an 81-inch reach, is also a southpaw. He's an inch or two taller than Ortiz. his unorthodox style, he believes, will present some problems for the Cuban masher.
Thompson has faced and defeated many of the best heavyweights in the world. He was knocked out twice in Europe by Wladimir Klitschko in the great champion's younger days. Those were the only two times in his career he's been stopped. He says it was Klitschko's late, great trainer Emanuel Steward who out-smarted him in the first fight.
Thompson knows what he needs to do to have any chance of beating Ortiz.
"I have to earn my respect because he comes out fast, and the last thing you want to do is give the guy an uber-amount of confidence in my hometown," Thompson said. "I have to come out fast. I have to meet that challenge in the middle of the ring. Then I can start to set my pace as we go."
Ortiz, speaking through his interpreter and trainer, Herman Caicedo, is unhappy, but resigned to the fact that he will continue to be avoided as long as he crushes opponents, like he did against Jennings.
"It's disappointing but that's how the sport is," he said. "I wasn't brought up that way. But I feel once I become a world champion, I have no doubt people will line up to fight me. I want to fight the best of the best, nothing less. Until that day comes I'm going to have to position myself and stay ready, and when it comes, defend it honorably and often."
The fight was originally supposed to be for the interim WBA heavyweight title, which Ortiz defended for the first time against Jennings. Thompson believes he knows why the WBA took it off the table.
"It's not a title fight because they're afraid he's going to lose that belt," Thompson said. "Why put a title belt up against a 44-year-old guy with nothing to lose?"
Ortiz is not happy the interim belt will not be up for grabs, either, but said he will fight as if the belt is on the line, because "a loss would lose the title. For me, it is a defense and I'll defend it with my life if necessary."
Thompson needs to control the pace of Saturday's fight, he says. Easier said than done against King Kong.
"I know he wants to come out ultra-aggressive, and that plays right into my hand," Thompson said. "So that means I have to earn my respect early. I have to make him be a little more respectful of me, and then I have to make him think a little bit. And he can't think on my level. Nobody's been able to think on my level since Steward beat me in the first Klitschko fight.
"So if he can't think as fast as me, I don't care how fast and strong you are, you're not going to be able to beat me."
(Photo of Ortiz, left, and Thompson, who dwarf Bernard Hopkins, by Tom Hogan, HoganPhotos/Golden Boy Promotions)