Deontay Wilder has retained his WBC heavyweight title with a knockout victory over Luis Ortiz.Having been absolutely dominated and outworked for six rounds, the explosive American demolished his challenger with a devastating right hand in the seventh.The finishing punch will come as a huge relief to Wilder, who finally found a home for his right hand and needed just one knockdown to finish his opponent unlike their March 2018 bout.Since the first fight, 'The Bronze Bomber' had fought to a draw with lineal champion Tyson Fury, before blowing out mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale in less than a round.Meanwhile, Ortiz fought further away from the limelight and despite scoring wins over Razvan Cojanu, Travis Kauffman and Christian Hammer, was starting to show all of his 40 years.

Wilder's slow start

It was a point that had been worrying fight fans coming into the rematch, only for them to be pleasantly surprised by 'King Kong' stepping on the scales at his lowest weight since 2015.

And the 236.5-pound Cuban wasn't to suffer the same fate as Breazeale, tentatively jabbing his way through the first three minutes and checking Wilder with two precise left hooks.

Ortiz was similarly the more active fighter in the second round, penetrating Wilder's 83-inch reach without much issue and landing a flurry of body shots on the inside.

Wilder finally unchained his right hand in the third - albeit largely in vein - but retreated to the back foot in the following round and dramatically beat his chest after absorbing an Ortiz combination. 

In fact, we couldn't find a reason to award Wilder any of the opening six rounds, sparking suggestions that his brother's knockout loss earlier in the night had affected him mentally.

Wilder wins by KO out of nowhere

The WBC champion was eventually more active during the seventh, launching a few right hands wide of the target, before sensationally ending the fight out of nowhere.

Wilder landed a straight right between the Cuban's guard, leaving him flat out on the canvas and - unlike the opening knockdowns in the first fight - he was unable to beat the referee's count.

The punch sparked wild celebrations from Wilder, who should breathe a sigh of relief after being forced to rely on his freakish power to dig himself out of a deep hole on the scorecards.

GIVEMESPORT scorecard

Remarkably, we had Ortiz winning 6-0 (60-54) at the time of the stoppage and were ready to award him the seventh before that closing shot.