Two days after celebrating the gold-medal winning performance of
his student, Herbert Conceicao, following his knockout of Oleksandr
Khyzhniak at the Tokyo Olympics, boxing coach Luiz Dorea learned of
Anderson
Silva’s scheduled booking against Tito Ortiz
under the Triller Fight Club banner on Sept. 11.
“I was already in L.A. at Anderson´s gym training my student, (2016
Olympic gold medalist) Robson Conceicao, for his first world title
dispute against (WBC super featherweight champion) Oscar Valdez,
when Anderson informed me about the fight against Ortiz,” Dorea
told Sherdog.com.
“Actually I got really excited when Anderson told me about that
fight. It will be a clash of MMA legends, two former champions
under boxing rules.”
Dorea has experience preparing for Ortiz after training Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira for his matchup with “The Huntington Beach Bad
Boy” at UFC 140 nearly a decade ago. Nogueira would win that fight
via first-round technical knockout.
“I´ve studied a lot Tito’s game from that fight,” Dorea said. “He
is a pretty explosive [fighter] in the beginning, uses a lot
[power] punches with both arms, but he is vulnerable to straight
punches and uppercuts. While Tito deserves plenty of respect, I see
Anderson having the advantage in ability, speed and physical
conditioning and I believe he can get a win via knockout.”
Silva vs. Ortiz will be contested at a 195-pound catchweight, with
the fight set for eight rounds. Dorea revealed that Ortiz’s team
requested shorter rounds for the bout.
“According to Anderson, he initially requested the fight to be
a 190-pound catchweight, but accepted a compromise of 195 pounds.
Anderson also accepted the request from Tito´s team for eight
rounds of two minutes,” Dorea said.
The Silva vs. Ortiz bout will be on the undercard of the headlining
clash between Oscar De La Hoya and Vitor
Belfort. Before he connected with “The Spider,” Dorea had
trained Belfort for nearly five years, so he also had some insight
on the Sept. 11 main event.
“Certainly De La Hoya has seen the fight between Anderson and Julio
Cesar Chavez Jr. and understands that underestimating MMA boxers is
not a good thing to do,” Dorea said. “I would say the result of the
main event will depend on how prepared De La Hoya is. Vitor is a
very explosive fighter, four years younger, much stronger and
has never abandoned the athlete routine.
“De La Hoya is one of the GOATs of the sport, much more experienced
in boxing matches but we don’t know how he took care of his
physical conditioning during the long time off. The experience is,
for sure, on De La Hoya´s side, but if I were him I
wouldn’t underestimate Belfort.”