Travis Kauffman feels he essentially fought Luis Ortiz “with one arm.”

Kauffman suffered a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder a couple weeks before he opposed Ortiz in December 2018. The veteran heavyweight’s left labrum completely tore during that fight against Ortiz, in which Kauffman was knocked down three times and stopped in the 10th round on the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury undercard at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The 34-year-old Kauffman (32-3, 23 KOs, 1 NC) will fight for the first time Saturday night in the 20 months since losing to Ortiz. The Reading, Pennsylvania, native will face Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin (20-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) in a 10-rounder Showtime will televise as the opener of a three-bout broadcast from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).

Kauffman acknowledged during an interview with BoxingScene.com that his surgically repaired shoulder still doesn’t feel the way he had hoped. He is much more confident entering his fight with Wallin, however, than he was before facing Ortiz.

“I have good days; I have bad days,” Kauffman said. “It’s been good for the most part. I’ve been sparring. It’s definitely better than what it was before the Ortiz fight. So, I look at that as a plus. I think what’s going on now is just the fear of everything. Like, ‘Damn, what if it happens again?’ But it’s definitely not bad like it was during the Ortiz camp. Like I said, I have good days and I have bad days. But for the most part, it’s been good. I’m punching. I hurt someone [recently] in sparring with my left hand, so that was a big confidence-booster. I’m good. I’m ready to test it out against Otto Wallin.”

Ideally, Kauffman would’ve withdrawn from the Ortiz fight. As a single father who has full custody of three of his children, he wasn’t in the financial position to do that.

“I remember I was sparring Maurice Byarm for that fight,” Kauffman recalled, “and I hit him with a left hook and all your heard was all this crunching in my shoulder. I was like, ‘Oh, something happened.’ I went and got an MRI, and my labrum was slightly torn. It was a partial tear going into the fight, but then it tore completely in the fight.”

The late Naazim Richardson, who was Kauffman’s trainer, didn’t want him to go forward with the Ortiz fight. When Kauffman refused, Richardson adjusted Kauffman’s game plan against the powerful southpaw because he knew Kauffman wasn’t at full strength.

“I remember in the Ortiz fight, Naaz wanted me to box,” Kauffman said. “Naaz knew I hurt my shoulder a couple weeks before the fight. And Naaz really wanted me to pull out the fight. I said, ‘Naaz, I can’t pull out the fight. I got kids, man. I’ve gotta provide.’ I was broke. And Naaz was like, ‘Trav, come on, man, you can go in there and seriously get hurt.’ I said, ‘Naaz, I can get hurt with two hands.’ So, he said, ‘All right, well, if you’re gonna do this, there’s gonna be no complaining in this camp. None.’

“He was only in the camp for two weeks because he had to do that show, ‘The Contender.’ So, when he was there, he wanted to make sure I didn’t complain not one bit. So, he says, ‘If you’re gonna fight with the messed up shoulder, f*ck it, we’re gonna fight. But no complaining.’ So, I didn’t complain because I wanted to make sure he wasn’t gonna pull the plug on me, as bad as my shoulder was hurting. … I pushed through what I had to push through, and I got through that fight.”

Ortiz floored Kauffman once apiece in the sixth, eighth and 10th rounds. A courageous Kauffman got up each time, but referee Thomas Taylor eventually stepped in to stop their bout at 1:58 of the 10th round, with Kauffman still standing, taking a barrage of unanswered punches from Cuba’s Ortiz.

“In that fight, my dad wanted to bring the dog out of me,” Kauffman said, referring to Marshall Kauffman, who is also his assistant trainer. “My dad said, ‘You’ve gotta press him. You’ve gotta press him.’ Our goal was really to box the first six rounds and let the old man’s legs wear out, and then press him. The first five rounds, I’m boxing, moving, wasn’t really getting hit. In the sixth round, I started pressing him a little bit, and got dropped. I went back to the corner and my dad and Naaz was actually arguing a little bit because Naaz was like, ‘Trav, you’ve gotta rest.’ My dad was like, ‘Nah, f*ck that! I know my son! He gotta press him! He gotta press him!’

“Naaz’s whole mentality is he didn’t want me to get hurt. This is a very tough sport, and he knew I only had one hand. I wasn’t myself for that fight. He just said, ‘Travis, go out there and make this quote, unquote most feared man out there look stupid against you. It’s the heavyweight division – you could still go out there and hurt him. But don’t go out there and get hurt and get knocked out and get put to sleep, because that could end your career.’ So, he really wanted me to just be smart.” 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.