Luis Ortiz injures thumb in sparring, off April 22 card in Brooklyn

Apr

Airplanes didn’t keep King Kong from scaling a boxing high rise in Brooklyn but a thumb injury did.

Luis (King Kong) Ortiz suffered a right thumb injury while sparring on Wednesday and is off the April 22 card at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, promoter Lou DiBella told RingTV.com on Friday. Ortiz (27-0, 23 knockouts) was to take on Long Island’s Derric Rossy (31-12, 15 KOs) on Showtime Extreme in a heavyweight bout but will now be out for an unspecified amount of time. DiBella said he was still waiting on a doctor’s report to find out the severity of the injury and the southpaw’s recovery time. It was to be Ortiz’s debut fight under the Al Haymon banner on Showtime after Ortiz signed with the ubiquitous Haymon last month.

An intriguing junior welterweight crossroads bout between undefeated prospects Jonathan Alonso (12-0, 4 KOs) and Jose Miguel Borrego (11-0, 10 KOs) will replace Ortiz-Rossy as the opener on Showtime Extreme, DiBella said. Amanda Serrano is facing Daliana Santana for a vacant bantamweight belt in the Showtime Extreme main event. The card is headlined by a WBC welterweight title eliminator between former belt-holders Shawn Porter and Andre Berto on Showtime.

“Certain things you can’t control,” DiBella said of the injury. “This was a late add-on to the show. It’s unfortunate but it’s not going to really detract from the quality of the show and the Extreme still has a great lineup with Amanda Serrano and Dahiana Santana and the prospect fight between two undefeated kids should be a sensational fight. Obviously, it would have been nice to see King Kong Ortiz in New York but stuff happens.”