Tonight’s PBC on FOX main event was another stinker for the brand with the biggest natural TV audience in the sport, as Luis Ortiz finished Alexander Flores in just 46 seconds of what was an obvious mismatch on paper and was even more of one in the ring.
Ortiz landed a recorded 3 of 10 punches, but the finisher was a body shot that sent Flores (who landed 0 of 1 punches) to the canvas.
Flores (18-3-1, 16 KO) has a decent enough looking W-L record until you do more than glance at it. He’s picked up a lot of club level wins, and even in one of those he went to a draw with a guy who was 4-4-2 in Costa Mesa, Calif., back in 2014. That came after a fourth round stoppage loss to Charles Martin in 2014. He also was stopped in three by Joseph Parker in Dec. 2018, and now this.
The 41-year-old Ortiz (32-2, 27 KO) still has hopes of becoming Cuba’s first pro heavyweight titleholder, but the best chances have likely passed him by given his age and the fact that the top heavyweights now are really good and a lot younger than him. He got two shots with Deontay Wilder and while competitive both times, he was stopped both times. He’s a top 10 heavyweight still, I really think that, but he might be a placeholder more than anything anymore. We learned nothing in this fight, as it turned out to be an even bigger waste of a FOX main event than anticipated. Ortiz did need to fight someone, but this was really bad matchmaking, even compared to some other bad Ortiz matchmaking over the years.
