Luis Ortiz Survives Early Scare. KOs Charles Martin In Sixth.

 

Charles Martin (28-3-1, 25 KO) was four rounds in on the best performance of his career and had plenty to be happy about. The former heavyweight champion had an old, slow, and vulnerable target in front of him, knocking Luis Ortiz (33-2, 28 KO) down twice and well on his way to a stoppage. Ortiz looked shot and was doing nothing to suggest he could turn the tide.

From the fifth round onwards, though, things took a turn for the dramatic.

Ortiz rallied, fighting with a sense of urgency and putting forward a desperate charge that ultimately lead to a crushing stoppage of Martin in the sixth round of their heavyweight contest that aired on PBC pay-per-view. The bout was the main event of a card full of heavyweight hopefuls, yet none stood out as potential threats to the division's elite; not even Ortiz in victory.

Things were not going Ortiz's way in the early proceedings. Martin slipped a lazy jab and connected with a stiff left counter that put Ortiz on the canvas and remained in control up to the point where he floored Ortiz again with another jab in the fourth.

To his credit, Ortiz stuck to the strategy of working behind his jab in hopes that he could draw an opening, and he finally hit pay dirt in the sixth.

A booming left hand from the Cuban southpaw had Martin out on his feet and glaring at the crowd; then a follow-up barrage nearly sent him out of the ring. When Martin did go down, his left glove got tied up in the ropes and caused a temporary pause to the action as the referee tried to free him. While wrestling fans will appreciate the callback to multiple Royal Rumble finishes over the years, Martin was not revitalized when the action resumed.

Ortiz would drop Martin one more time, drawing a stoppage and preserving his chance of another meaningful heavyweight fight down the line. He looked awful though, and he's not going to magically get better before his next fight at his age unless he gets popped a third time for using banned substances.

Rest assured, there is nothing either man showed that suggests that they'd be a threat to Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, or even Anthony Joshua. For a fight that featured four knockdowns, it was incredibly dull and didn't do much to elevate either fighter at this stage of their respective careers.

"Southpaw versus southpaw is a very difficult fight. In the end, intelligence won the fight," said Ortiz.

If he's smart, he'll reach out to Andy Ruiz or Dillian Whyte if the latter can't make a fight with Fury in the coming months, take the money and call it a career.