It took Luis Ortiz all of 45 seconds to stop Alex Flores
After watching the Saturday, November 7, 2020, Flores versus Ortiz heavyweight bout on Fox Sports, you’d have to say, “Something wasn’t right.” This week’s featured bout, which took place at the Microsoft Theatre inside the L.A. Live entertainment & shopping complex in Los Angeles, was a disaster. This is when you need a Larry Merchant or a Howard Cosell to describe what has just happened. It’s likely they begin, “Let’s talk about this train wreck, shall we.” In that LA show, it was the 41-year-old Cuban heavyweight Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (32-2, 27 KOs) from Miami, making quick work of Alexander “The Great” Flores from Rowland Heights, Calif. The end came early, 45 seconds into Round One. It brought to mind those memorable scenes in the old Black & White movies where you see a locomotive barreling down the track and then wiping out an auto that some clown left stranded on the railroad tracks.
Returning to the ring after his loss to the then-Heavyweight Champ Deontay Wilder on November 23, 2019, the committed Ortiz proved that despite his age, he was still a force in the Heavyweight Division. Ortiz began his series of unanswered blows with a straight left to send Flores and his right hand in reverse. Not once did we see Flores take a step forward. Thirty seconds after what was purported to be an Ortiz right hook to the ribs, there was Flores doubled over in pain and lying face down. With the punishment only going in one direction in this match, the bout only lasted 45 seconds. It was easy to see Flores was not in wonderful shape, especially when you consider this fight was such a major opportunity. As of this date, Flores had faced just two boxers of Ortiz’s pedigree, Charles Martin and Joseph Parker.
After viewing this contender for “the most one-sided match in history”, the California State Athletic Commission’s executive officer Andy Foster announced that the Commission would be holding Flores’ $80,000 purse citing a bylaw which states his regulatory body can do so in the event it appears “a contestant is not competing honestly, or is intentionally not competing to the best of his or her ability.”
Later, Foster stated that no determination has been made as to whether the commission believes Flores threw the fight or was not competing to the best of his ability, but this matter will be reviewed. A special CSAC hearing will be held and a vote taken. Foster continued, “I’m very much not saying that any one of those things have happened. But there’s enough justification where we need to look at it again. And we need to look at it for more than just 15 minutes as we witnessed during the broadcast of this event.”
During this one-sided fight, Ortiz closed quickly on Flores and landed his powerful blows. Whether blocked or not, Flores gave the impression they had a lot of affect on him. In the finishing sequence, it had been undetermined whether Ortiz landed a shot to Flores’ body. Never the less, at that point Flores dropped to the canvas and could not continue. On the broadcast, it was reported that Flores had an injured eye? Replays showed that Ortiz’s right forearm had landed to Flores’ head on the final blow. It was this forearm that Keith Veltre of Roy Jones Jr. Boxing Promotions, Flores’ promoter, claimed was the blow that finished the fight.
Ortiz, a top heavyweight whose only two career defeats came against Deontay Wilder, now goes to 32-2 with 27 knockouts. Flores now ends up with a record of (18-3-1) with the 18 wins coming over the “let’s inflate my record opponents” while the losses were to the more creditable fighters like Luis Ortiz in 2020, Joseph Parker in 2018, and Charles Martin in 2014.
Foster then said the commission will now put together their special hearing as quickly as possible. “We’re gonna try to move it along,” Foster said. “We’re not gonna try to keep the guy held up. We’re not trying to take away a fighters’ money. I don’t like doing this. I very rarely do. But it was a main event on Fox and we feel like there is enough reason to review it.”
The results from the other four bouts:
In the Main Event, Bout #5, a battle for the WBO NABO Heavyweight Title they featured Frank “The Cuban Flash” Sanchez (left) from Las Vegas, Nevada who with his win moved to 16-0, 12 KOs after his fourth round knockout of the 40-year-old Brian Howard (r) from Loganville, Georgia who dropped to (15-4 with 12 KOs). In Howard’s loss to Sanchez, he suffered three knockdowns, one in round three and two more in round four.
In Bout #3, again heavyweights, it was the 34-year-old, 6’5” tall, undefeated Michael Polite Coffie (11-0, 8 KOs) from Brooklyn, New York, stopping the 39-year-old southpaw Joey Abell from Coon Rapids, Minnesota (now 35-11 with 33 KOs) in round two after an injury to Abell’s right arm.
In Bout #2, it was the 35-year-old, 6’6” tall heavyweight Rafael “El Grande” Rios (right) from San Diego, Calif. now (11-3, 8 KOs) going down to defeat at the hands of 6’6” tall Carlos Negron (left) from Miami, Florida who improved his record to (22-3, 18 KOs) after stopping Rios in round two.
In the opener, Bout #1, it was the 22-year-old, 6’7” tall Steven Torres from Reading, Penna. (r) improving his record to (4-0, 4 KOs) after stopping the 40-year-old, 6’3” tall Joshua Tuani (left) of Sea Tac, Washington, now (2-3) after being counted out after a body shot ended his night in round two.
