(Photo Credit: Alex Menendez – HoganPhotos/Golden Boy Promotions) Interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz (24-0, 21 KOs) put the world on notice tonight with a very nice 7th round stoppage win over a tough as nailed 31-year-old American Bryant “By-By” Jennings (19-2, 10 KOs) in a fight televised by HBO Championship Boxing from the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.
Ortiz nailed Jennings with three consecutive uppercuts to the head to put him on the canvas in the 7th. Ortiz finished Jennings off with two big left hands that resulted in the referee stepping in to stop the fight at 2:41 of the round. Jennings was too hurt to continue. He wanted to, but his body was not going to let him if the referee hadn’t stepped in protect him from being finished off.
Earlier in the fight, Ortiz hurt Jennings in the opening round with an uppercut to the head. Ortiz took punishment for the last minute of the round was on the verge of being stopped.
To Jennings’ credit, he came back and fought well in rounds 2 and 4 with his smothering style of fighting. Jennings prevented the 6’4″ Ortiz from being able to get leverage on his shots by staying close to him. Jennings was still hurt in the 3rd round from a hard left hand from Ortiz that had him again close to being knocked out.
Ortiz made an adjustment to Jennings’s smothering style in the 7th round when he started nailing him with big uppercuts from close range.
“I didn’t see Deontay Wilder anywhere here,” Ortiz said to HBO. “I told you it’s a new era, and everyone has to take me serious. This is a new era in the heavyweight division.”
Ortiz then said he wants to fight the top heavyweight champions, saying “Wilder and [Tyson] Fury. HBO and Golden Boy decide.”
Other boxing results on the card:
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Other boxing action on the card:
Nicholas Walters draw 12 Jason Sosa
D’Mitrius Ballard UD 6 Fabiano Pena
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy MD 10 Yuniesky Gonzalez
Gabriel Rosado UD 10 Joshua Clottey
Yuriorkis Gamboa UD 10 Hylon Williams
