Deontay Wilder made Ortiz rematch official Saturday

Prior to Saturday night’s Errol Spence-Shawn Porter pay-per-view broadcast from Staples Center in Los Angeles, Premier Boxing Champions made official what has been rumored: WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder is back in action on November 23rd.

Wilder, (41 -0 -1, 40 KOs) will rematch Cuban heavyweight contender, Luis Ortiz, in the 12-round pay-per-view main event from PBC on Fox PPV, as well, at the MGM Grand Garden arena in Las Vegas.

As we wrote previously, Ortiz came close to upsetting Wilder during their thrilling fight in March of 2018. Wilder scored a 5th round knocked down, but then was in the most trouble of his entire career, when Ortiz (32-1 26 KOs) rallied in the 7th round staggering Wilder with a series of punches.

Although Wilder never went down, he was clearly wobbled and in danger of getting knocked down or worse. To his credit, Wilder weathered the storm, battled back and knocked Ortiz down, again, in the 10th round with a barrage of right hands. Ortiz rose fatigued and wobbly and Wilder finished him off a short time later with a right uppercut and a 10th round TKO.

This will be Wilder’s 10th defense of the WBC belt that he won by decision over Bermane Stiverne in January of 2015, also at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Wilder previously fought in May against number one WBC Contender Dominic Brazeale and destroyed him with a one punch knockout in round one.

Meanwhile, Ortiz (31-1, 26 KOs) has won three fights since the loss to Wilder, including a 10-round decision over German, Christian Hammer, in March.

Wilder said in a PBC statement Saturday:

“When I fought Ortiz not only did he have the pedigree, but also he had the classification of being the boogeyman of the division,” said Wilder. “I agree with those who say that Luis Ortiz was my toughest fight to date. No one wanted to fight him and they still don’t. In the rematch there’s more confidence and more motivation to do what I have to do. I’ve already seen the style before. It’s going to make it more fun. I can’t wait to see how he tries to handle me when I’m at my best.

“This is the second big fight for me under my company, BombZquad Promotions, and I’m very happy about that. We still have a lot of work to do to build it into the kind of company that I know it’s going to be in the future, but it’s coming along. To be able to do a FOX Sports PBC Pay-Per-View at MGM Grand in Las Vegas under my own banner is fantastic.”

PBC also announced Saturday that WBA Featherweight champion, Leo Santa Cruz, will move up a division and fight for the vacant WBA 130 lbs. title in the co-main event on the Wilder card against contender, Miguel Flores.

Santa Cruz (36 – 1 – 1, 19 KOs) is bidding for his fourth world championship in a different weight division. The 31 year old has been the WBA 126 lbs. title holder, on and off, since 2015. After originally winning the title in a wild battle by unanimous decision over Abner Mares, he lost it in 2016 on a 12-round decision to Ireland’s Carl Frampton. However, Santa Cruz won the rematch later that year with Frampton and has been champ, since.

Santa Cruz most recently won a title defense by easy decision over Rafael Rivera in February.