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Ortiz vs. Scott Fight Recap
Courtesy of HBO.com
By Nat Gottlieb HBO & Pound4Pound Boxing Writer
On a night when Malik Scott seemed to think he was competing
on "Dancing with the Stars," the Philadelphia-based boxer
managed to do something remarkable. No, he didn't knock out
the unbeaten Luis Ortiz. No, he didn't beat him on the
cards. Shockingly, by his survival style of faux boxing,
Scott made the normally electrifying Cuban look boring.
Ortiz (26-0, 22 KOs), who was overwhelming predicted to take
out Scott within three rounds, won every round but didn't
look particularly sharp in an unanimous decision victory
over Scott (38-3-1, 13 KOs) at Salle des Étoiles in Monte
Carlo on HBO's Boxing After Dark. The scores were 120-105,
120-106, and 119-106 in what can only be called a snoozefest.
The 37-year-old Cuban was hoping to win impressively enough
to land himself a title shot, but that chance will probably
have to wait for another day and a better, more combative
fighter in the ring with him.
This past Thursday, Scott, who seems to be more active on
social media than he is in the ring, tweeted: "I believe
Luis Ortiz is the best out there. He is a lion and I've got
to tame that lion."
Well, in order to tame the lion, you have to actually throw
some punches. But Scott didn't throw his first punch in the
opening round until almost two minutes had passed. For the
fight, CompuBox had him throwing a pitiful average of 13
punches per round, none of which remotely did any damage.
Some of the blame must go to Ortiz, too. For almost the
entire fight the southpaw seemed intent on landing one big
left hand to take Scott out. As a result, Ortiz, normally a
punching machine, was not throwing many combos, and seemed
to be pawing with his long jab, instead of trying to do any
damage with it.
Another negative for the 6-foot-4 Cuban was having to face a
fighter who seemed content to just go the distance. Further,
Ortiz wasn't able to find a strategy to cut off the ring and
trap Scott. Ortiz's corner implored him midway through the
fight to change tactics, saying, "Don't look for that home
run! Corner him!" But their message fell on deaf ears.
Scott, who has never lived up to his amateur career hype,
seemed to almost have a "rope-a-dope" fight plan, even
dropping his hands at times to goad Ortiz to come at him.
But the Cuban is no dope, and he remained patient, if not
exciting, for the full 12 rounds.
Scott went down seven times, but the only three trips to the
canvas that were counted as knockdowns by referee
Jean-Robert Laine came in rounds four, five and nine. It was
initially unclear why the other four weren't counted.
Even more puzzling is why Ortiz failed to work Scott's body,
and why he only threw his usually devastating uppercut just
twice, missing his elusive target both times. CompuBox had
Ortiz connecting on close to 50 percent of his power shots,
but they just didn't seem to have their usual stinging
effect. It certainly wasn't due to Scott's chin, which had
betrayed him in his two previous losses, both knockouts.
Scott's corner sounded delusional at times in its
instructions to the fighter. After the eighth round, one of
his corner men told him, "Pick up your hand speed, move your
legs and your head! You're right in this."
After the fight, Ortiz said, "Malik was running around the
ring and made it hard for me to fight.
Everybody comes to see a show and see someone fight and
brawl. It made it hard for me.
I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to knock him out,
but he was moving around and made it hard."
Where Ortiz goes from here is anybody's guess, but it
doesn't appear his performance did much to earn him a title
shot. As for Scott, his 12-round "No Mas" was a unanimous
embarrassment and his days as a serious contender appear to
be over. It's likely that the talented but faint-hearted
Scott will now be used as a gatekeeper for up-and-coming
young heavyweight prospects.
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