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WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he immediately agreed to the fight against Israil Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis chose not to fight him on the February 22nd card in Riyadh.
Vergil Jr. mustn’t be involved in another controversial decision going his way because it looked bad for him to win a controversial decision in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk. If he gets too many of those, it’ll limit his star power.
Low Output Worries
Madrimov has the skills and power to make this a tough fight for Ortiz Jr., But he doesn’t throw a lot of punches, which should give Vergil Jr. a significant advantage. He’s a lot busier.
In Madrimov’s loss to Terence Crawford, he didn’t throw enough in the championship rounds and was outworked. It was a winnable fight, but he let Crawford outwork him despite having less power, size, and youth. Terence just wanted it more. Vergil Jr. and his team likely saw Madrimov’s low output, which may be one reason they agreed to fight him. He can be outworked.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) states that it “motivates” him in training camp when he’s getting ready to fight a good opponent. However, he’s only fought one good opponent during his nine-year career, beating WBC interim 154-lb champion Bohachuk by a very questionable 12-round majority decision on August 10th last year in Las Vegas.
Vergil was knocked down twice by Bohachuk, hitting the deck in the first and eighth. He protested the first knockdown, saying it was a slip, but replays showed it was a knockdown.
Many boxing fans had Vergil losing, and they felt he was gifted a decision over the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. received a lot of criticism from people when he chose not to give Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy. Turki Al-Sheikh could have insisted that he fight, and Vergil Jr. probably would have. That never happened, so now Vergil is moving on followed by a dark cloud.
Other than Bohachuk, Vergil’s only other notable win on his resume came against EgidijusKavaliauskas. He was staggered early in the fight but somehow survived to score a knockout in the eighth round.
Can Madrimov Win?
“It’s a great fight on paper. He just had a great fight against Crawford. He did really well. Even though he lost, that’s not the kind of performance that you can be ashamed of. He did great,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to talkSport Boxing about Israil Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.
“We were going to fight ‘Boots,’ and the fight fell through. So, I was thinking, ‘Am I still fighting on the card?’ It was kind of up in the air, and then I got a call from my dad, ‘Would you fight Madrimov?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I would. It’s a great fight.’ The reason I said yeah is because he’s a hard fighter.
“I’m a very competitive person. It motivates me in the training camps when I know I have a hard fight ahead. It keeps me focused. I know there’s a lot on the line [against Madrimov], but I like it. It gets the adrenalin pumping,” said Vergil Jr.
This will be Vergil’s second good opponent in his career, and it’s going to be interesting to see how well he performs. ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov can punch with either hand, and he’s got excellent boxing skills. Again, he doesn’t have a high output, and his stamina is on the poor side. He gassed against Crawford in the championship rounds.
Ennis Ducks?
“Can we talk about Boots for a second because there was a bit of argumentation between you both,” said Gareth A. Davies to Vergil Jr. about what happened with the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis not taking place. “It’s a fight that we all want to see. There’s 40-odd fights between you two. Do you feel he’s [Ennis] avoiding you? There are arguments about weight and all that.”
“I don’t think he’s avoiding me. I think there’s someone on the team that is lying,” said Ortiz Jr. about his belief that someone on Ennis’ team is not being truthful. “Us as boxers, we’re not the one negotiating. We’re not communicating. We have managers for a reason.
“I’m not saying it’s his manager because there are so many people that come into play. I can’t say who it is because I don’t know who it is. All I know is on our side, we said, ‘Yeah.’ I believe so. It’s a fight that has to happen,” said Ortiz Jr. when asked if he believes he’ll eventually fight Jaron Ennis.
