VERONA, New York -- Luis Ortiz wanted to keep it as secret as possible. But how long could he do that for? The 36-year-old Cuban expatriate heavyweight was about to have the biggest fight of his life. The problem was Ortiz wasn’t able to stand, let alone fight. Ortiz was bed ridden with the flu for six of the last 10 days leading up to his scheduled 12-round fight against Bryant Jennings on Saturday on HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” from the Turning Stone Resort and Casino.
Maybe “King Kong” created a new training regimen. Every heavyweight contender should go out and get the flu, lie in bed for six days before a big fight and do as little training as possible, because it certainly worked for Ortiz. It translated into his best performance as a pro, stopping Jennings at 2:41 of the seventh round, after crashing a huge left uppercut that sent Jennings prone on the canvas.
“I had the flu all week and I didn’t even think about pulling out,” Ortiz said. “I first found out I was sick two weeks ago. The whole weekend I was vomiting. I kept training.”
Ortiz (24-0, 21 KOs) jumped on Jennings early, using the left uppercut to stun him. Jennings (19-2, 10 KOs), it seemed, had problems recovering the rest of the fight. He barely got out of the first round, encountered more problems in the second, and arguably didn’t win a round until the fourth.
“Jennings likes to lean forward and I noticed that,” Ortiz said, in between coughs. “Obviously, there was a game plan. But when you go up into the ring, you have to adapt a little bit. I told my trainers I saw a lot of flaws, and one of those flaws is that Jennings likes to lean forward. I told my trainer after the third round is that I’ll have to start fighting inside. I thought the uppercuts would work. When I knocked Jennings down in the seventh round, I was a little surprised. I know he wasn’t right mentally, and I knew I was right. I wanted to knock him out.”
All week long, Herman Caicedo, Ortiz’ trainer, felt his fighter was ready, despite all of the physical hardships he endured the week leading up to the fight.
“He had a cough, chest congestion, and we went to the hospital,” Caicedo said. “They wanted to recommend antibiotics, but we didn’t want to take anything because of Luis history (Jennings made it point in the fight build up that Ortiz tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone in the post-fight drug screen after stopping Lateef Kayode in the first round on Sept. 11, 2014. It was later ruled a no-contest by the Nevada Athletic Commission.). We stayed on the safe side. We weren’t going to risk anything. We shook out and he was really a mess coming into this week.”
Caicedo said that Ortiz did train briefly this week. But Team Ortiz went against doctor’s orders and took nothing.
“I think this victory says a lot about Luis,” Caicedo said. “We made it clear to everyone he was sick. This was Luis’ best performance, showing he can do everything. He can box, he can punch. This shows that he is a true champion. There was motivation here. His daughter suffers from a rare illness, and he has the drug thing hanging over his head. It did bother him to hear that people still bring it up. We tested everything prior to this fight. Luis prides himself on his who he is, what he’s gone through to reach this point. This guy is from the hills of Cuba. He had to escape and here he reaches this point.”
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.