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Moments after Luis
Ortiz scored his exciting seventh round TKO of Bryant
Jennings, both fighters addressed the press.
LUIS ORTIZ:
”This is a big victory for me. It’s a big victory because of
who I fought. I fought a quality heavyweight, a guy with a
name. A guy that can fight, and a guy with cojones.”
“Obviously there is a game plan, but when you go up in the
ring you have to adapt a little bit. I told my trainers that
I saw a lot of flaws. One of the things I noticed was that
he likes to lean forward a lot. So I said after the third
round that I was going to fight him on the inside, and the
uppercuts are going to work.”
“I was a little bit surprised (that he got up from the
knockdown), but I knew that he wasn’t right mentally. I
didn’t want a TKO, I wanted to knock him out.”
“When I’m the ultimate world champion that will be my best
victory. This is just my job and I train hard in the gym.
What I’m trying to accomplish is to accomplish my dream.
Ever since I saw my first fight, which was Muhammad Ali on a
small, dingy TV back in Cuba, my dream has always been to be
the heavyweight champion.”
“Line them up. You line them up, I’ll fight them all. I
invite everyone to come fight me on HBO.”
ERIC GOMEZ (GOLDEN BOY):
“Obviously we are going to go for the biggest fight for him.
Whatever the biggest fight is. He’s the Interim WBA
champion, we’re going to pursue the regular champion. When I
get back home, I’m going to sit down with Oscar, sit down
with the team and discuss it. Then we’ll go to HBO and see
what we can get done. Bryant obviously has the heart of a
champion. We should commend him for a great fight and a good
performance. It didn’t go his way, but he will be back.”
BRYANT JENNINGS:
”It’s part of the game. It just wasn’t my night. It was what
it was. I still wanted to try to fight (after the
knockdown), but it just wasn’t there. That’s the game.
That’s the fight game. I was fighting pressure against
pedigree and he out-bested me tonight. He was hitting me
with clean shots, and they were good punches. I wasn’t on my
game and he got the best of me tonight. I think it was his
pedigree that overpowered me.”
“My corner was pretty much telling me to keep moving my
head, stop leaving my head where it was at. I just got too
comfortable leaving my head where it was at, but that wasn’t
the main fault. I kept the same routine instead of switching
it up when he switched it up. I didn’t adjust well. I didn’t
adjust well at all.”
“I got hurt in the first round. I have to look at it to see
how I looked, but I how I felt was that I was trying to get
back in it. I was trying to get back. The whole second round
I was still blacked out. Like the lights were out. But I
still fought and I think I did way better than I did in the
first. In the second round, I was probably in worse
condition that in the first round because I was feeling the
effects of it then. The third round I kind of got it back
and I was trying to get it all the way back. I was working,
just trying to get a groove.”
“I’m not going to try to say it was a premature stoppage. I
knew it. I knew it when I got up. I’m thinking that I wish
it was basketball. I’m looking up to see how much time is
left. But it wasn’t happening. That same almost blackout
from the first round kind of reoccurred. I probably could
have stayed away and used my legs, but those first three
steps off the count? It was a wrap.”
“It hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s part of the game.
Like I put on my Instagram five minutes later, It’s part of
the game, but maybe a part of the game that I didn’t want to
be part of. It is what it is. I had a tough road, these last
fights. I fought some tough opponents. But I’m a fighter,
and I’m from Philly and I showed heart. I did what I had to
do. It just wasn’t my night tonight."
“We had a great camp. We were very comfortable. It’s just he
was a better fighter. Well, he wasn’t the better fighter. He
was good at positioning and when he switched up, I just
didn’t adjust well. In the sixth round, he came out boxing.
Ortiz was landing cleaner shots. In the first round, I
probably got hit with a harder shot than that other shot.
But just like (the video game) “Street Fighter”, when you’re
playing and it (endurance meter) is all the way up, but you
get hit, hit, hit it goes down, down, down. And when it
turns red, the softer shot hits you, it takes you down. But
that shot just so happened to be another hard shot. But I
still got up. I was aware, but when I looked up, I was like
Damn! I knew what happened, and I knew how it was going to
go.”
“My inexperience showed tonight. All the other fights where
the guys were more experienced, my conditioning and my
strength pretty much powered me (enough). But tonight, the
experience showed.”
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