Interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he quickly accepted a fight with Israel Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis chose not to fight him on the February 22 card in Riyadh.
Vergil Jr. should not 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 will limit his star power.
Low Output Concerns
Madrimov has the skills and power to make this a tough fight for Ortiz Jr., but he doesn’t throw many punches, which should give Vergil Jr. a significant benefit. You are very busy.
In Madrimov’s loss to Terence Crawford, he didn’t throw enough in the championship rounds and worked hard. It was a losing battle, but he let Crawford work for him despite having less strength, size, and youth. Trence just wanted more. Vergil Jr. and his team may have seen Madrimov’s low score, which may be one reason they agreed to fight him. He can work outside.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) says he is “motivated” in training camp when he prepares to fight a good opponent. However, he has only fought one good opponent during his nine-year career, defeating interim WBC 154lb champion Bohachuk by a controversial 12-round majority decision on August 10 last year in Las Vegas.
Vergil was knocked down twice by Bohachuk, hit by a pitch in the first and eighth. He protested the first drop saying it was a slip, but replays showed it was a hit.
Many boxing fans have lost Vergil, and feel they have the gift to make a decision about the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. received a lot of criticism from people when he chose not to give Bohachuk a replay to avoid controversy. Turki Al-Sheikh could have insisted on fighting, and Vergil Jr. may have. That never happened, so now Vergil continues to be followed by a dark cloud.
Besides Bohachuk, Vergil’s only other notable win on his resume came against Egidijus.
Kavaliauskas. He was knocked down early in the fight but survived and got a knockdown in the eighth round.
Can Madrimov win?
“It’s a big fight on paper. He just had a big fight with Crawford. You did really well. Even though he lost, that’s not the kind of performance to be ashamed of. He did very well,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. speaking to Sport Boxing about Israil Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.
“We were going to fight ‘Boots,’ the fight ended.” So, I was thinking, ‘Am I still on the card?’ It was like it was up in the air, then I got a call from my father, ‘Can you fight Madrimov?’ I said, ‘Yes, I would. It’s a big fight.’ The reason I said yes is because you are a strong person.
“I am a very competitive person. It motivates me in training camps when I know I have a tough fight to fight. It keeps me focused. I know there is a lot on the line [against Madrimov]but i like it. It gets the adrenaline pumping,” Vergil Jr. said.
This will be Vergil’s second good opponent in his career, and it will be interesting to see how well he does. ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov can punch with both hands, and has excellent boxing skills. Again, he doesn’t have a high output, and his durability is on the poor side. He gassed Crawford in the championship round.
Ennis Ducks?
“We can talk about Boots for a second because there was an argument between the two of you,” said Gareth A. Davies speaking to Vergil Jr. about what happened with the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. “It’s a fight we all want to see. There are 40 odd battles between the two of you. Do you hear him? [Ennis] do I avoid you? There are arguments about weight and all that.”
“I don’t think he’s avoiding me. “I think someone on the team is lying,” Ortiz Jr. said. about his belief that something in Ennis’s group is not true. “We, as boxers, are not the ones who are interviewing them. We don’t communicate. We have managers for a reason.
“I am not saying that he is his manager because there are many people who come in with him. I won’t say who it is because I don’t know who it is. All I know is on our side, we said, ‘Yes.’ I believe so. It’s a fight that has to happen,” said Ortiz Jr. when asked if he believes he will end up fighting Jaron Ennis.
Source link
