WBC Interim Junior Middleweight Champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he immediately agreed to fight Israil Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis opted not to fight him on the Feb. 22 card in Riyadh.
Virgil Jr. must 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 them, 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 land many punches, which should give Vergil Jr. a significant advantage. He is much busier.
In Madrimov’s loss to Terence Crawford, he did not throw enough in the championship rounds and was overworked. It was a winnable fight, but he let Crawford outplay him despite having less power, size and youth. Terence just wanted it more. Virgil Jr. and his team probably saw Madrimov’s low output, which may be one of the reasons they agreed to fight him. He may become unemployed.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) states that getting ready to fight a good opponent “motivates” him in training camp. However, he has only fought one good opponent during his nine-year career, beating WBC interim 154-lb champion Bohachuk by a highly questionable 12-round majority decision last August 10 in Las Vegas.
Vergil was struck down twice by Bohachuk and hit 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 to lose and 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. would. probably have done. That never happened, so now Vergil moves on followed by a dark cloud.
Aside from Bohachuk, Vergil’s only other notable win on his resume came against Egidijus
Kavaliauskas. He was staggered early in the fight but somehow survived and scored 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, it’s not the kind of performance you can be ashamed of. He did great,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to talkSport Boxing on Israil Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.
“We were supposed to fight ‘Boots’ and the fight fell through. So I was like, ‘Am I still fighting on the card?’ It was a bit windy and then I got a call from my father: ‘Do you want to fight Madrimov?’ I say, ‘Yes, I would. It’s a great match.’ The reason I said yes is because he is a tough fighter.
“I am a very competitive person. It motivates me in the training camps when I know I have a tough fight ahead of me. It keeps me focused. I know there is a lot at stake [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 performs. ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov can punch with both hands and has 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 an argument between you both,” Gareth A. Davies told Vergil Jr. about what happened with the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis not happening. “It’s a fight we all want to see. There are 40 fights between the two of you. Do you feel he is [Ennis] avoid you? There are arguments about weight and all that.’
“I don’t think he’s avoiding me. I think there’s somebody on the team that’s lying,” Ortiz Jr. said of his belief that anyone on Ennis’ team isn’t being truthful. “As boxers, we’re not us who negotiate. We don’t communicate. We have leaders for a reason.
“I’m not saying it’s his manager because there are so many people involved. I can’t say who it is because I don’t know who it is. All I know is on our side , we said, ‘Yes.’ I think so. It’s a fight that has to happen,” Ortiz Jr. said when asked if he believes he will eventually fight Jaron Ennis.
