Before a planned rematch against Tyson Fury in 2020, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder must first get past Luis Ortiz once again.
PBC announced that Wilder and Ortiz will fight for the WBC title one more time on November 23. The rematch will headline a FOX pay-per-view event from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The two heavyweights fought back in March 2018 with Wilder emerging victorious with a 10th round stoppage after Ortiz seriously hurt Wilder in the middle of their fight. Since then, Wilder would go on to fight Fury last December with the two fighting to a draw and then knocked out Dominic Breazeale in the first round this past May.
Ever since Ortiz suffered the stoppage loss to Wilder, the Cuban heavyweight has won three straight fights. In his most recent bout in March, Ortiz dominated Christian Hammer en route to a 10-round unanimous decision win at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Also on the card is WBA “Super” featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz moving up in weight to super featherweight and face Miguel Flores for the vacant WBA “Super” title. This will be Santa Cruz’s debut at 130 pounds and a win would get him a title in four different weight classes. The WBA "Super" version of the title was vacated by Gervonta Davis recently, temporarily leaving "Regular" champion Andrew Cancio as the sole WBA champion at 130 pounds.
The fight between Santa Cruz and Flores was originally supposed to take place in February for Santa Cruz’s featherweight title but Flores suffered an injury weeks before the bout and had to withdraw. Santa Cruz ended up facing Rafael Rivera and won the fight by unanimous decision.
