Who wins? This is another close matchup IMO. I would assume that Ortiz would implement the same jab and box strategy he used for Joe Brown, because a war would favor the bigger firepower of Cervantes.
But would it work as well? Brown was regressing and aging, he was considerably smaller than Cervantes and he didn’t have his firepower I think Ortiz would win some rounds with that reserved approach but eventually Cervantes is going to break through and force more exchanges... he’s the crisper puncher and he’s got the jab to take away that kind of play once he starts to figure it out and make Carlos fight him... I see it as an early lead for Ortiz but Cervantes closing the gap and ultimately winning the decision
Ironically enough, Ortiz would probably be better off going inside on Kid Pambele. Ortiz was one of the all time great infighters, while Cervantes was not great on the inside. At long range, Cervantes was longer and rangier. And yes, Cervantes had a much better jab than Joe Brown and was faster.
Brown’s best assets were his versatility, the ability to adapt to whomever he was in there with and his sneaky right hand ... when he was champ it was like he was 6 different fighters in his 11 defenses ... walking this guy down, dancing around this one, going toe to toe with that one, whatever worked best ... it was like everything he’d learned over a brutally unforgiving career as a longtime contender fighting whoever wherever coalesced with still being in good physical form and opened a 5 year window of greatness and the window started to close and Ortiz noticed it was still open a crack and it was raining and he said “oh shit I better close that” and I don’t know what the water would be in this metaphor so I’m just going to shout “HE CLOSED THE WINDOW!” a few times and then repeat all of this like Teddy Atlas
