Wilder And Ortiz Ready To Rumble In Brooklyn

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and challenger Luiz Ortiz took part in a Media Conference call on Thursday to discuss their March 3 showdown at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York

Below is what the two boxers had to say

Luis Ortiz

As far as the preparation, I’m ready to go. We’re ready to go this week if we have to. As far as for the fight and for Wilder, I have no comments for him.

Deontay Wilder

Good evening, everyone. Hope everybody’s having a wonderful day and a beautiful day as beautiful as mine. I just had a scrumptious meal with some sweet tea, I’m feeling good. I’m fixing to get ready to go spar and get this past week over and March 3 I’m coming to whip Luis Ortiz’ ass but I’m excited for this fight. I am so excited for this fight.

I’m glad that it’s finally here, one more week, next weekend, all the talking, all the anticipation for this fight, all the hype, all of that’s fixing to come into play next week and I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to being in one of my biggest, one of my toughest fights to date and we’re going to see what happens.

I’m feeling great, camp has been going great. This is what I’ve been waiting on to prove to the world what I’ve been saying all along, that I am the best heavyweight champion in this era. I am the best heavyweight champion, period, and I’m willing to prove that not only to Luis Ortiz but to the world.

I think Luis Ortiz is a great fighter and I think this is the biggest fight that could be made at this point in time in boxing. He’s been waiting a very long time and here I come, Luiz Ortiz called me his angel because I came along, I took him under my wings, I’ve blessed him not only once but twice and I can’t keep saying that enough.

I want people to get it in their mind that I could have ran from this fight. I could have chosen any opponent that I wanted to to fight on March the third, especially when all the other stuff went about, I could have easily gone somewhere else but no, I’m adamant about what I say, I’m confident about what I’m going to do and I’m ready to prove it to the world. So I got the perfect opponent, it’s the perfect time, it’s the perfect place.

Somebody’s ’0’, got to go and you all already know what I come to do. I talk my talk to walk my walk. It’s going to be up to Luis Ortiz to prove me wrong. He’s got an opportunity to be the first Cuban heavyweight champion of the world. It sounds good but he got a big task in front of him. He dealing with a monster. He dealing with a guy with a killer instinct.

He dealing with a guy that ain’t afraid of not one human being on Earth, especially when you get in that jungle and I am the king of the jungle. I am the lion of the jungle. He’s never faced nobody with the pedigree with the killer instinct that I have inside of me. He’s never faced a guy that wanted to knock his head off so clean off his shoulders.

He never been in there with a guy that won’t back down, won’t budge. I can’t wait. I hope he’s sleeping good, too. I hope you’re getting all your minerals, your protein and you’re taking your medicine faithfully because March the 3rd it’s going to be a real fight. I’d like to welcome you to the real sport of boxing.

Q

How hard is it for you to think and to focus so hard on this fight knowing that you’ve had three other fights to my count that have fallen-out because of bad drug tests. Do you allow yourself to think of that as a possibility?

1. Wilder

Yes, that could happen, that’s a possibility, we always say, once a cheat, always a cheat and that will always carry with him but that’s going to be up to Luis Ortiz. I think Luis Ortiz is a smart guy and I think he’s going to do the right thing up to this point.

If he doesn’t, like I said, it’ll be shame on him to put people through so much pain and it’s ridiculous that we have to be talking about this still at this point in time with drugs and cheating and stuff but I think he’s going to do the right thing and so with that being said, I’m not worried about it.

I have confidence in him that he’s going to turn-up clean and he’s going to give a great performance on the night of that fight and we’re all going to be winners at the end of the night.

Q

How hard is it to have the birth of a child take place so close to the fight?

1. Wilder

Well, boxing comes first. This is my life. This is my career that we’re talking about. This is how I can afford to feed my family so nothing come above this so when coming into that involvement, I made it perfectly clear that boxing was first and boxing was last. Now we have some in the middle that we can fill but then we can do so.

They were very cooperative of what I requested and what I wanted to happen and they fulfilled their obligations with me and I did so with them. My focus is solid on Luis Ortiz. I don’t want people to mistake me doing reality show for not caring about this fight.

When Deontay Wilder’s mind is set on something, when he’s focused, nothing is going to stop me.

Q

Deontay how do you prepare for fights mentally and how do you think that helps or hurts you?

1. Wilder

I think boxing for me is 90% mental during the duress or even 96 percent. it’s a majority mental for me more than physical. That’s why I’m able to speak and say what I’m going to do and actually deliver that because I believe in myself, I believe what I say, I believe in what I say I’m going to do.

I don’t play around. That’s the thing about it and it all comes from my mental standpoint, my mental game, mentally, emotionally, physically I am ready for this fight.

Like I said, I fought this fight 100 times and the thing about it - about this fight - out of the 100 times I done fought this fight, most days were similar but the only thing that was different out of the 100 times I done fought this fight, the ending it ended in different ways, different knockouts because I will knock him out.

It ain’t going to be a matter of time. A win is going to be a matter of time or when it lands and the fashion I do it in so mental plays a big part in what I do. That’s why I’m able to boldly speak how I speak because a lot of guys they aren’t confident in themselves.

They won’t dare speak how I speak, they won’t dare to do it because they don’t know what the outcome’s going to be on that night of that fight but with me, I know what it’s going to be because it’s up to me.

It’s not up to the crowd, it’s not up to my trainers, it’s not up to nobody but myself in that ring and we all know what when Deontay Wilder get under those lights, those cameras, I perform my best. I’m an entertainer so I can’t wait.

Q

Luis how do you feel when people say they want to see Joshua vs. Wilder?

1. Ortiz

I have no feelings there, that fight isn’t going to happen. That fight is not going to happen.

Everybody that talks as much as Deontay loses. Brandon Rios just the other day was talking and talking and talking and talking against Danny Garcia and look what happened. None of this talk bothers me. He can talk all he wants. Deontay is trying to convince himself.

Q

Deontay you said that it feels like I’m better off not being in this sport as being in it, I don’t understand it when it comes to all the failed drug tests your opponents have had in the past couple of fights. Do you still feel that way?

1. Wilder

So sometimes I still feel that way, but also I have to face reality as well too that these guys are going to do it. They’re going to do it and these organization makes it worse because they allow them to do it because they bring them back in without suffering any really no type of consequences behind their actions.

Makes you wonder what they doing when they taking these PEDs. Everybody wants to come-up, I understand.

Everybody want to feed their family; I understand but how can you say you a man when you take PEDs? When you cheat, when you try to do things to give you that advantage to try to get on top of the game, it doesn’t work that way.

So many champions have done it as well. We don’t know how many times these guys do it we just know the number of times that they got caught. The intention is to do it without getting caught. We try to be as smart as we can not to get caught and that’s a problem.

It’s like I can’t even be a man, I couldn’t even be a man and sit up here and allow nobody to put something in my mouth or stick needles in my arm or in my ass or wherever it goes. I couldn’t be a man and say that and I win a title and something and say I did it because no, you didn’t. You didn’t do nothing.

You cheated and that’s bottom line. It’s a touchy subject because I’ve been a clean fighter all my life. I never even thought about even taking no drugs or put in my body to make my body do something that it’s not normally supposed to do. I’m a clean fighter. I’m a fair fighter. I bring what I bring and I give you results.

I say what I’m going to do and I deliver. I give you results. I’m very confident of what I say no matter what nobody may feel or what they may say. No. I don’t have to deal with none of that because it’s already there. I’ve showed you 39 times, 39 knockouts.

This is about to be my 40th fight with 39 KOs. Yes, we may have an amateur background but that’s amateur. This is the pros and in the pros I’m more experienced. I’m a knockout artist. That’s what I come to do and that’s what I will do. I promise you that. Promise. Promise. I promise.

Q

First question for Luis, is Deontay the toughest fighter that you’ve faced and do you have a prediction for this fight?

1. Ortiz

Absolutely not. It’s going to be a hell of a fight and somebody’s going to hit the canvas. While he keeps hyping himself and hyping himself and trying to believe in himself, it’s going to be a bad night for him. He’s talking about PEDs. I’ve taken seven tests in a month and a week, seven blood and urine tests for VADA and the New York Commission.

Bryant Jennings was the toughest fight Luis ever had.

1. Wilder

Oh lord, you can say that now because you ain’t faced me.

1. Ortiz

Well, you’re in for a hell of a problem March 3.

Q

Deontay how have you improved since that Szpilka fight and are there any tactics you plan on using differently when facing a southpaw this time around?

1. Wilder

No, my camp has been great. I’ve had a lot of great sparring partners. I’ve even had sparring partners that have whipped his sparring partners, so that explains a lot. It’s going to be a great fight.

Szpilka was a very awkward fighter, just like myself so when you get two awkward fighters in there, it turns-out to be like that. I adapt to every fighter. I feel every fighter out. No matter how long it takes, I’ll figure you out.

Szpilka was a very awkward fighter, just as myself so when you get two awkward fighters in there, it turns-out to be like that. I feel every fighter out. No matter how long it takes, I’ll figure you out.

It’s a 12-round fight. People got to understand, people want me to be so perfect. They want me to win all the rounds, they want me to look good doing it and they want the knockout. They expect so much of me but it’s okay, because I always deliver what I say I’m going to do.

That’s the thing about me, I’m a man of my word and I have a lot of credit for being a man of my word worldwide, not just the belief part isn’t it? So with this southpaw, I can’t wait. He’s not as awkward as you think, there’s a lot of things that he does wrong, there’s a lot of mistakes that he’s making in the ring and it’s due to his long amateur experience.

That’s going to be a bad thing for him when you’re coming in the professional rankings so the fight is going to be good as it lasts and I can’t wait. They never had nobody in front of them that won’t just knock his head off like I want to do. They never had a guy in there so vicious, so mean as me, and it’s so real.

There’s nothing that I have to pretend to be. I am who I am. I am the king.

Q

What do you think of Ortiz’ level of opposition to this point?

1. Wilder

I’ll let you be the judge of that. Ortiz has never faced nobody with my caliber. Ortiz ain’t never faced nobody with the intensity, with the mindset that I have or with the natural killer instinct that I have.

All that shit goes out the window when you get in the ring with a real one. I don’t care about all that. That ain’t nothing.

There is nothing that man’s going to do to touch me where he’s going to hurt me. I’m going to walk through all that. I’m telling you. That’s nothing. I’ve seen his style many, many, many times. I’ve fought it coming-up in the amateurs. I’ve got a lot of Cuban friends. I know their style. Trust me. And I can’t wait. That’s why I do my talking. I talk my talk so I can walk my walk.

Anybody else on the outside of the ring can’t talk the talk because they’re not going to be able to walk that green mile. His trainers, his promoters, his people around him are not going to be able to walk the green mile. Luis Ortiz is going to be the only person that’s going to be able to have to suffer the consequences and the more they talk, the more punishment that comes on him.

Everything intensifies my anticipation of knocking his head off. Keep talking.