11/23 PBC on FOX PPV | Wilder vs Ortiz II

[8====D]

 

[patscorpio]

Kenny To Join Lewis, Goossen For FOX's Wilder-Ortiz Show
By Keith Idec

Published On Mon Nov 18, 2019, 04:59 PM EST

FOX Sports’ team of announcers will be slightly different for the network’s Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz pay-per-view show Saturday night.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Brian Kenny will work as FOX’s blow-by-blow announcer, alongside analysts Lennox Lewis and Joe Goossen, when those heavyweights square off again for Wilder’s WBC title at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Kenny Albert usually fills the blow-by-blow role for FOX, though Kenny worked several boxing broadcasts for FOX from 2015-18.

Kenny, a fixture for MLB Network and former ESPN host, also works for DAZN as a blow-by-blow man. Lewis, a former heavyweight champion, and Goossen, a veteran trainer, have regularly worked FOX’s telecasts since the network’s new deal with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions launched last December 22 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Kenny, Lewis and Goossen will call four fights as part of FOX Sports’ pay-per-view event Saturday night. The pay-per-view portion of the Wilder-Ortiz undercard is set to start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

The action is scheduled to begin with a 12-rounder between Brandon Figueroa (20-0, 15 KOs), of Weslaco, Texas, and Mexico’s Julio Ceja (32-4, 28 KOs). They’ll fight for Figueroa’s WBA super bantamweight title.

In another 12-rounder on pay-per-view, Mexico’s Luis Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) will oppose Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-1, 12 KOs). Rodriguez will try to bounce back from a second-round knockout defeat to IBF/WBA bantamweight champ Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) in his last fight, May 19 in Glasgow, Scotland.

In the bout before Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) and Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) fight again, three-division champion Leo Santa Cruz will make his debut in the 130-pound division. Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs), of Rosemead, California, is set to face Houston’s Miguel Flores (24-2, 12 KOs) in a 12-rounder for the WBA’s “super” 130-pound crown.

The suggested retail price to watch Wilder-Ortiz in HD is $74.95.

 

[Rain]

I don't feel like this is a gimme fight for Wilder. Ortiz seems to be in better shape this time around. It's a dangerous fight for him

 

[Loose]

I don't feel like this is a gimme fight for Wilder. Ortiz seems to be in better shape this time around. It's a dangerous fight for him

Ortiz 40 years old wilder will be fine,

 

[FreedMind]

I don't feel like this is a gimme fight for Wilder. Ortiz seems to be in better shape this time around. It's a dangerous fight for him

How far back can Ortiz really roll the clock back though. 40 years old, has blood pressure issues, hasn't looked great in recent bouts, he even started growing the flat top.

Ortiz is dangerous, and Wilder is always at risk to lose via decision, but I'm banking on Wilder being too much for the old heavyweight. Ortiz getting the W would be a huge shock, at least in my eyes.

 

[aceboon]

Didn't even know Brian Kenny was still employed by Fox, just plug Ray Flores in there, Kenny is clueless

 

[Bigblackted4]

I don't feel like this is a gimme fight for Wilder. Ortiz seems to be in better shape this time around. It's a dangerous fight for him

Can’t be a gimme when I think Ortiz would beat the likes of Pulev, Whyte and Chisora relatively easy.

 

[chunky_mcdaniels]

Can’t be a gimme when I think Ortiz would beat the likes of Pulev, Whyte and Chisora relatively easy.

Agree.

This is the heavyweight division. Your one punch away from lights out more than any other weight division.

 

[trick]

Didn't even know Brian Kenny was still employed by Fox, just plug Ray Flores in there, Kenny is clueless

Not only do we gotta sit through his shyt play by play on DAZN's shows (fukking Ryan Garcia/Todd Grisham/Rahio Raheem did better job with KSI vs Paul than he ever did), now he's a PBC play by play guy? How does this fukking hack keep getting work

 

[Bigblackted4]

Not only do we gotta sit through his shyt play by play on DAZN's shows (fukking Ryan Garcia/Todd Grisham/Rahio Raheem did better job with KSI vs Paul than he ever did), now he's a PBC play by play guy? How does this fukking hack keep getting work

Sad part I was watching some ESPN classic boxing list and he was good back then, dudes just become full on character and full of themselves after years of being in the industry aka Jim Lampley

 

[trick]

Sad part I was watching some ESPN classic boxing list and he was good back then, dudes just become full on character and full of themselves after years of being in the industry aka Jim Lampley

He doesn't even call the action in the ring, instead he's just there to challenge people and create arguments during the broadcast. Just terrible

BTW, the athletic posted this story with Luis Ortiz:

How Luis Ortiz, 40, plans to turn back the clock and ruin Wilder-Fury

LAS VEGAS — “How bad do you want this?!” Larry Wade screamed as his fighter, Luis Ortiz, sprinted the UNLV track a few weeks before his rematch with Deontay Wilder. “This guy’s coming for you! You have to find that dog in you!”

Wade, Ortiz’s conditioning coach, knew the task at hand was tough: help him become the first boxer older than 40 to claim a heavyweight title since George Foreman in 1994. In those moments of Ortiz’s need, when the physical and mental hurdles seemed so daunting, Wade roared.

“When you get clipped in the late rounds, are you going to fold or bite down? Champions bite down!”

Ortiz calls the varying sessions of wind sprints, extended training runs and swimming laps “torture.”

But in embracing the extra miles along with new, high-tech health monitoring complemented by a sophisticated protocol of supplement use overseen by BALCO mastermind Victor Conte, Ortiz expects the extra work will be rewarded Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Ortiz almost achieved this against Wilder in their back-and-forth bout in March 2018. He rocked rocked Wilder with vicious punches to the head in the seventh round, however the Cuban later succumbed to fatigue in a 10th-round technical knockout loss. Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs) told The Athletic it remains “a painful thorn.”

Wilder says the fact he did not go down in that flurry mentally broke Ortiz.

“He threw everything and the kitchen sink at me, and he could not get me out of there,” Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) said. “And I think that messed with his head.”

Ortiz responded to the defeat with a better-thought-out preparation strategy. He hired Wade — who also coaches current super middleweight champion Caleb Plant and former welterweight champion Shawn Porter — and deepened his union with Conte.

Conte was briefly imprisoned for the famed 2003 FBI raid of his BALCO steroid factory that ensnared home-run king Barry Bonds, Olympic sprinter Marion Jones and longtime champion boxer Shane Mosley. But for years now he has professed the products manufactured by his Bay Area company, SNAC, are legal substances.

Ortiz also declares himself clean despite testing positive for steroid use in 2014. Later, in 2017, test results also found two performance-enhancing drug masking agents. He has been a willing participant in stringent Voluntary Anti-Doping Association testing this camp.

Ortiz skirted a suspension over the second result when the WBC accepted his explanation that the substances were contained in his high blood pressure medication, fining him $25,000.

He says anyone who questions his newfound fitness “doesn’t know all the facts.” And Conte adds: “I have a clean fighter in tremendous shape. Considering he’s 40 years old, he’s bound for a historic achievement.”

Wade’s extreme conditioning requires Ortiz to endure numerous sprints, ranging from 200, 400 and 800 meters in distance. Along with training runs ranging from three to eight miles and more swimming than ever, this stronger version of Ortiz has co-promoter Leonard Ellerbe predicting the strides will stand as “the biggest difference in the fight.”

Conte is thrilled to have access to a new FDA-approved gadget called a “Mighty Stat” that measures Ortiz’s heart rate, blood flow, blood-oxygen saturation, breath frequency and hydration through his fingers.

With that data, Conte uses a “super-oxygenation” machine on Ortiz to enhance recovery between workouts beyond the SNAC supplements the fighter routinely ingests for healing and endurance.

Ortiz is 10 pounds lighter than he was at this time in the last Wilder camp. He looks fitter and is “ridiculously strong,” by Conte’s lofty standards.

“I believe all this new science is helping his confidence go sky high because he’s never done this before,” Conte said. “And now that we’ve seen this transformation, everyone believes this is going to be a completely different fight.”

To emphasize his dedication to revenge and ending a Wilder title reign that dates back to January 2015, Ortiz — a devout family man who has an 11-year-old daughter, Lismercedes, suffering through the painful skin condition epidermolysis bullosa — has been separated from his Florida-based clan throughout this three-month camp.

“That’s more torturous than getting punched in the face by Wilder,” Ortiz said. “I miss them all, but seeing (Lismercedes) still in some pain (on FaceTime chats), I miss her tremendously. I’m fighting like this so she can see me as a champion.”

After hearing rumors that Ortiz was as old as 51, The Athletic pointedly asked him if the claim was true.

“If you ask Tyson Fury, I’m 147 years old, but I promise you I’m 40. I just turned it not long ago. March 29, 1979, is my birthday,” Ortiz said. “I’ll get to Foreman’s age, but I’m not there yet, and what’s left to come from me before then will be special.

“These 12 weeks have been about diving back into the sport on a basic level, being more cautious of what I eat and listening to the conditioning coach. I owe it to myself because my main goal has always been a championship. Retirement doesn’t creep into my mind. I’ve never even thought of not doing this.”

One of those who has much riding on Ortiz’s performance is Premier Boxing Champions promoter Tom Brown. He sat ringside 25 years ago this month on the night Foreman, at 45 years old, knocked out Michael Moorer to win his belt at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The promoter sees parallels in the fact that the left-handed boxer hasn’t experienced a rugged pro career, preserving himself. Ortiz did not turn professional until nine years ago, has not taken much punishment in the ring since then and is incredibly dedicated outside of it. Ortiz says he has never smoked and stopped drinking on New Year’s Eve in 2010.

“He also still hits like a mule, and power is the last thing to go on a boxer,” Brown said. “He stayed dedicated, focused in the gym, and he’s not a crazy liver. Those things all work in his favor.”

Defeating Wilder would link Ortiz to Foreman, a staggering accomplishment to the Cuban.

“Accomplishing something only he did would be a tremendous blessing, to say the least,” Ortiz said. “If I become the first Cuban heavyweight champion in boxing history, I’ll humbly thank God for such an incredible journey.”

An alternate journey is already being planned, however, and there are substantial business ramifications to Ortiz’s showing.

If Wilder retains his belt, he takes it to an already signed Feb. 22 rematch against lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury following their Dec. 1 draw. That bout, set to be a joint ESPN-Fox pay-per-view, is eyed as a multimillion-dollar event far beyond Ortiz’s first pay-per-view main event on Saturday.

“Ortiz has the opportunity to fukk this whole thing up,” Ellerbe said. “What better situation to be in? All he has to do is focus for 12 rounds, find a way to win a big-ass fight and he becomes the man in the heavyweight division.”

Brown said there’s no question Ortiz has the potential to beat Wilder.

“These are heavyweights. One punch changes the whole friggin’ night,” Brown said. “So all I’m looking at is Saturday. You won’t hear me talking about anything else. I have huge respect for Ortiz, and I see something different in him this time, in his training and preparation.

“The last thing anyone wants to do is look past him, and it’s nerve-wracking for anyone when you have something awaiting you on the fight schedule, and June 1 (when Andy Ruiz Jr. stopped Anthony Joshua) is the best example.”

Ortiz bypassed a proposed Joshua date before the Ruiz fight was made because of his determination to wash away “the sour, sour taste” of the Wilder loss.

To do so, conditioning coach Wade has pushed his fighter to the brink over the 12-week camp.

“I don’t care if you like me now. I’d rather you love me later,” Wade says to Ortiz during the strenuous training. “You’ll love me when you win, when you get paid, when you pay for your child’s tuition.”

“You tell me, I work,” Ortiz replies.

That improved preparation could be the difference in Las Vegas on Saturday — a night primed to make his dreams come true, and destroy others’.

“Wilder is the best heavyweight in the last 20 years. To take his belt, that would be unbelievable,” Ortiz said. “But I’m ready for 15 rounds now, and Wilder will have to deal with all of me.”

 

[patscorpio]

"wilder is the best heavyweight of the last 20 years..." ...

that statement gets the Sho'Nuff Memorial "nikka Please" Award

 

[DragonKnight]

Wouldn’t shock me if Ortiz won

 

[Omar Little]

"wilder is the best heavyweight of the last 20 years..." ...

that statement gets the Sho'Nuff Memorial "nikka Please" Award

Sho ain’t AJ

 

[patscorpio]

Sho ain’t AJ

if the answer doesnt have a last name of klitschko then its the wrong answer