Scorecard: Luis Ortiz's victory won't help him to get top opposition
— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Saturday at Washington, D.C.
Luis Ortiz KO6 Tony Thompson
Heavyweight
Records: Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs); Thompson (40-7, 27 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: From the moment Ortiz knocked out contender Bryant Jennings in devastating fashion in the seventh round on Dec. 19, he immediately became the heavyweight division's bogeyman, a guy no top guys are interested in tangling with. He was a superb amateur on the famed Cuban national team and he's a fast southpaw with crushing power who does not generate enormous money. For all of those reasons, getting a top big man to set foot in the ring with him is and will be a nightmare for Golden Boy Promotions.
Golden Boy ran through several opponents who turned down the opportunity to headline this HBO card. After Alexander Dimitrenko accepted, he tried to get more money that was not available and pulled out. So on about a month's notice, Thompson, the 44-year-old two-time former world title challenger (twice knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko), took the fight. Thompson has rarely turned down an opportunity and quickly accepted the fight with the bonus being that it was already set to take place in his hometown of Washington, D.C., where he had never fought in 17 years as a pro.
Thompson gave it his best effort but he was not in top shape, was very slow and was a sitting duck for Ortiz's blaster of a left hand. The 6-foot-4, 242-pound Ortiz, whose interim world title was not at stake because the organization understandably declined to sanction Thompson as a challenger, scored three knockdowns in the fight between southpaws.
Ortiz, who defected and fights out of Miami, nearly ended the fight in the first round when he knocked Thompson down hard with an overhand left to the head. The 6-5, 264-pound Thompson did not want to be embarrassed in front of his home crowd and showed heart to stay in the fight. But he had little to offer and went down for the second time from an identical overhand left as the third round ended.
In the sixth round, "The Real King Kong" once again landed a powerful overhand left and Thompson went down again. This time he was done and referee Malik Waleed counted him out at 2 minutes, 29 seconds as Thompson was trying to get up. It was another devastating performance from Ortiz and will do nothing to convince other top opponents to fight him.
Overall, he landed Ortiz landed 88 of 250 punches (35 percent) while Thompson connected on 43 of 221 punches (19 percent), according to CompuBox punch statistics.
As they should have, two judges had Ortiz winning every round but one judge, Washington's Lloyd Scaife, had a disgraceful hometown card on which he had the audacity to give Thompson two rounds in a fight that was pure Ortiz domination from start to finish.
Golden Boy hopes that Ortiz will return May 7 to fight on the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan HBO PPV undercard against Russian mandatory challenger Alexander Ustinov (33-1, 24 KOs). The fight is due by June 19.
Jessie Vargas TKO9 Sadam Ali
Wins a vacant welterweight title
Records: Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs); Ali (22-1, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In perhaps the best performance of his career, Vargas, 26, a former junior welterweight titlist from Las Vegas, scored a definitive victory to claim his second world title. He and Ali, a 27-year-old 2008 U.S. Olympian from Brooklyn, New York, met for the 147-pound world title recently vacated by Timothy Bradley Jr., who elected to accept a big-money third meeting with Manny Pacquiao on April 9 rather than face Ali, the mandatory challenger.
Going into the fight, it was universally viewed as an even fight that could be a good one, and that is exactly what it turned out to be. It was competitive and entertaining as both fighters had their moments in the fast-paced fight.
In the end, however, it was Vargas, who landed more punches, was more accurate and who had an answer whenever Ali would land, who rose to the occasion. He fought a very disciplined fight and gave credit for the win to the game plan and motivation given to him by Dewey Cooper, his new trainer.
Vargas came into the fight with a chip on his shoulder still ticked off by how his last fight in June ended, a unanimous decision loss challenging Bradley for the belt. He came close to stopping Bradley in the final seconds of the bout, but felt as though he was robbed of the chance to finish him when referee Pat Russell mistook the clapper signaling 10 seconds left in the round as the final bell and stopped the fight with about seven seconds left. Vargas vowed he would not wait around to get going again and he did lived up to that promise against Ali, whom he knocked down twice.
Ali's right eye began to swell in the action-packed fourth round. Ali was having a very good eighth round when Vargas cracked him with a clean overhand right that crumpled him near the ropes as the round was coming to an end. Vargas continued to attack in the ninth round, dropping him with a right hand midway through it and then finishing him when he badly rocked him with another right hand and referee Kenny Chevalier intervened at 2 minutes, 9 seconds.
According to CompuBox punch statistics, Vargas landed 159 of 429 punches (37 percent) and Ali landed 118 of 408 blows (29 percent). But Vargas, ahead on all three scorecards going into the ninth round, closed the show in that round by landing 21 of 35 power punches.
With the victory in hand and the belt around his waist, Vargas called for a rematch with Bradley regardless of the outcome of his third meeting with Pacquiao. Top Rank promoter said he would like to match Vargas with the April 9 winner. Whatever happens, Vargas, with such a good and crowd-pleasing performance, put himself in position for big business.
Oscar Escandon KO7 Robinson Castellanos
Wins a vacant interim featherweight title
Records: Escandon (25-2, 17 KOs); Castellanos (21-11, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In November, titleholder Gary Russell Jr. was scheduled to face Escandon in a voluntary defense before he was supposed to face mandatory challenger Castellanos. But Russell suffered a cut in training and the fight with Escandon was canceled. With Russell sidelined, Castellanos and Escandon were approved to fight each other for the interim belt with Russell mandated to fight the winner later this year.
Castellanos, 33, of Mexico, had scored two upsets in row -- a fifth-round knockout of then-undefeated Ronny Rios in October 2014 and a lopsided decision against Rocky Juarez in January 2015 -- to earn the mandatory shot against Russell. But Castellanos could not make it three big wins in a row as the much-shorter Escandon, 31, a 2004 Colombian Olympian, who was moving up in weight, pressured him nonstop, banged him to the body and outfought him.
Castellanos' best moment came in the second round when he dropped Escandon with a hard jab-right hand combination that sent him to his backside. Escandon, however, did not appear hurt, got up quickly and took over the fight.
He steadily broke Castellanos down, had him in trouble in the fifth round (during which Castellanos suffered a bad cut over his left eye) and then dropped him with a clean right uppercut in the seventh round. Castellanos went down to a knee and referee Frank Garza counted him out at 2 minutes, 59 seconds. It was a big win for Escandon, who has yet to meet his baby daughter, who was born three weeks ago while he was in training camp.
Wednesday at Chonburi, Thailand
Wanheng Menayothin TKO5 Go Odaira
Retains a strawweight title
Records: Menayothin (41-0, 16 KOs); Odaira (12-5-3, 1 KO)
Rafael's remarks: Menayothin, 30, of Thailand, retained his 105-pound world title for the fourth time as he constantly pressured Odaira, a 31-year-old southpaw from Japan, who was fighting for the first time in one year. Menayothin dropped him in the third round with a right hand and took a shellacking the rest of the way as he lost his second strawweight world title bout in his last three bouts. In the fifth round, Menayothin landed a pair of uppercuts that had him in big trouble before he went down after taking a few more shots. Referee Raymond Chang stopped the bout at 2 minutes without bothering to count.
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