Boxing news: Luis Ortiz out of the Anthony Joshua picture, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury set to swerve each other and Daniel Dubois sends a message
THE SEARCH for an Anthony Joshua opponent drags on as Luiz Ortiz now looks out of the picture while Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury are set to avoid each other further.
With drug cheat Jarell Miller denied the chance to box the WBA, IBF and WBO world champ in June, promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Andy Ruiz Jr and Michael Hunter lead the race to get the lucrative payday.
While Wilder and Fury look set to shelve their rematch further as their respective promoters revealed plans for the fighters not involving a rerun of their December thriller.
Here’s SunSport’s boxing round up…
DUBOIS SENDS A MESSAGE
DANIEL DUBOIS sent a message to Joe Joyce and anyone else in the heavyweight division who will listen after flattening Richard Lartey in four rounds on Saturday night.
Dubois faced the greatest adversary of his career yet having gone to war with his Ghanaian opponent who didn’t come to make up the numbers.
The 21-year-old stopped Ghanian Lartey in four rounds with a crushing right hand with domestic rival Joyce sat ringside for the KO.
Terms for the domestic punch up had already been agreed before Dubois London smashing of Lartey – though Joyce could opt to look elsewhere with a shot at Manuel Charr’s WBA ‘Regular’ heavyweight world title in his plans.
LUIS ORTIZ ‘DROPPED THE BALL’
THE name on everyone’s lips to replace Miller in the summer is Cuban veteran Ortiz, who’s only loss came by 10th round KO against Wilder in 2017 after giving the WBC champ a world of problems.
Hearn had offered the tricky southpaw £3.8million to save the day at Madison Square Garden – though the 40-year-old’s management amazingly demanded £7.7m – despite their biggest payday earning them £500,000.
A furious Hearn vowed to “expose” team Ortiz for snubbing the bumper deal as Joshua’s most credible replacement seemingly priced himself out of the unified world title shot.
But in an amazing U-turn Ortiz’s manager Jay Jimenez revealed he and the fighter wanted to accept the £3.8m offer but their promoter “dropped the ball” by trying to negotiate a higher offer.
RUIZ AND HUNTER LEAD THE PACK
AS ORTIZ looks to be out of the running to replace Miller, Hearn has revealed Ruiz and Hunter are the two left leading the race.
Hunter, only beaten once in his 17 fight career losing on points to cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk, looked to be the No1 choice for June 1 having shared the same promotional banner with AJ.
That was until Ruiz knocked out German Alexander Dimitrenko and tweeted his interest in the world title fight – and Hearn admitted the California born fighter is stern contender.
Hearn had wanted to announce Joshua’s opponent last week, though as of yet it looks to be a two horse race between Ruiz and Hunter.
FURY TO HAVE ANOTHER TUNE UP
PROMOTER Bob Arum revealed his newest client Fury will have two tune-up fights before a rematch with WBC world champ Wilder.
After Fury signed an £80m deal with Top Rank and ESPN his rematch with Wilder was shelved and instead he will face unheralded Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas on June 15 before then taking another less competitive bout in the US before a Wilder rematch.
Arum told SunSport: “We will use Fury vs Schwarz to show the public this Tyson Fury personality and then maybe another fight after that.
“Then, when we do another fight between Fury and Wilder, we will shoot for two million or more PPV buys so the two fighters make humongous money.
“We have the time to build him up now for the US market because they don’t really know him.
“Wilder vs Fury got into around 300,000 homes but the second, if they build Wilder up more with the US public, then we can talk about a super-fight that gets into millions of homes.”
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WILDER TO LOOK ELSEWHERE
THE NEWS Fury will swerve Wilder for another tune up fight after June 15 will not come as any bother to the Bronze Bomber, according to promoter Hearn.
Matchroom Boxing chief Hearn claims Wilder, who faces Dominic Breazeale on May 25, will rematch Ortiz and then fight Adam Kowanaki in a three fight plan that does not include AJ or Fury.
Hearn said: “Everybody in the business tells me that he [Wilder] has been told and all these fighters have been told that his next fights are Ortiz and Kownacki.
“That worries me because the only fight we want next is Deontay. They’ve got a plan to fight these other guys in place.”
