Henry Hardwicke
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There will be no world heavyweight titles on the line when Andy Ruiz Jr. takes on Cuban veteran Luis Ortiz in Los Angeles on Sunday night, but there is still plenty at stake.
The winner of this bout will move up in the queue to face either Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk for the belts and the loser will face a long road back towards world title contention.
When is the Ruiz Jr. vs Luis Ortiz fight?
The heavyweight clash is scheduled to take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday night, September 4, at approximately 10:00pm ET. The fight will be shown on FOX pay per view.
What are the odds for the Ruiz Jr. vs Luis Ortiz fight?
Andy Ruiz Jr. is a -430 odds favorite to win the fight at FanDuel Sportsbook, with Luis Ortiz the underdog at +290 odds. The fight going the full 12 rounds is +152 odds and it’s -196 that there is an earlier finish.
Ruiz Jr. vs Luis Ortiz best bet: Fight to go the distance (+152)
Ruiz has been a heavyweight champion before after beating Anthony Joshua in 2019, only to lose the IBO, IBF, WBA and WBO titles in a rematch against the British fighter later the same year. Since then, he has fought just once, claiming a routine points win over veteran Chris Arreola in May last year.
At 43, Ortiz is very much in the twilight of his career but he has been the more active of the two fighters of late. The Cuban got up from the canvas twice to stop former IBF champion Charles Martin in 6 rounds earlier this year, and in a 35-fight career his only defeats have come in world title fights — with both of those losses coming against knockout specialist Deontay Wilder.
The Destroyer goes into the contest as the heavy favourite and the odds suggest that Ortiz isn’t expected to last the full 12 rounds. However, considering the fact that Ortiz has only ever been stopped by the classy Wilder — and he managed to fight on for five rounds after being knocked down by the Bronze Bomber in their first meeting — there is a good chance the judges will be called on.
Joshua is the only man to have put down Ruiz and the American managed to get back up and win that first meeting. Like Ortiz, the California native has lost only in world-title fights so far, losing to Joseph Parker via majority decision in 2016 when challenging for the then vacant WBO belt. As both of these heavyweights are incredibly durable and have shown real resilience over the course of their careers we may need the full 12 rounds to decide this fight.
Ruiz Jr. vs Luis Ortiz best bet: Ortiz ML (+290)
This looks to be a reasonably close matchup and as such it makes sense to back the underdog to land an upset. Ortiz is an awkward southpaw with a long reach and that makes him a very difficult opponent for Ruiz, while there can be no questioning his heart or desire as he bids to work his way to another world-title shot.
Ruiz wants to set up a trilogy fight with Joshua and has title aspirations of his own, but he hasn’t been active enough since losing his rematch with AJ to justify being such a heavy favourite and could come unstuck against the experienced Ortiz in LA.
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