Cuban heavyweight puncher Luis Ortiz has been out of the ring for over a year. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
Ortiz, 44-years-old, has been inactive since losing a close twelve round unanimous decision to former unified champion Andy Ruiz back in September of 2022.
Ortiz has been staying in shape and waiting for an opportunity to come up.
The dangerous puncher’s trainer, Germán Caicedo, is growing with frustration as time passes and options are running out for his fighter.
“He is training every day. We have different routines. Since there is nothing on the horizon he is working on his physical condition. Not as much boxing, but he does come to the gym three times a week. Nobody talks about him,” Caicedo told George Ebro.
“I see fighters who say, ‘I’m tired of waiting for this one, I can’t find an opponent.’ Like Tyson Fury who is going to face Francis Ngannou. He didn’t call Luis. The same with [Anthony] Joshua, he has no opponent. He hasn’t called Luis either. They don’t call him. They want to erase him from the map. They want him to disappear so that he no longer bothers them. Since he debuted on the scene they have avoided him.
“Those who do call are the guys who are 10 and 0 with 10 knockouts, offering $100,000 to fight… guys who need it a lot more [than us] so they can say that they fought with Luis whether they win or lose. But that’s not worth it at the stage where he is at right now. Fury and Joshua say that they only want to fight for money. OK, Luis is the same, but the difference is that Luis likes boxing.
“The punch is the last thing to go. His abilities from the age of 30 when I met him up until now have been adjusting, knowing that he can no longer do some of the things that he used to do. He does do them, but not constantly. Luis is 44 years old, but he looks like he’s 33. He still pushes, beats people on the track. When you see that it makes you angry, because today’s heavyweights are cowards.”