Interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. will face a very different test in his title defense against the technical Israil Madrimov on February 22 in Riyadh. The fight will take place in 58 days.
The mighty Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) the 26-year-old defeated the bully. Serhii Bohachuk by a controversial 12-round majority decision in his last fight on August 10. Bohachuk dropped Ortiz Jr. twice in the fight.
Vergil Jr. he was defeated by the more powerful Bohachuk throughout the fight, but made a controversial decision to take his bike for the last four rounds to get the win.
Ortiz Jr. he didn’t choose to give Bohachuk a rematch to end the controversy, which is understandable given how much punishment he took in that fight. Bohachuk had beaten Vergil at his own game, slugging and forcing him to move in the last quarter of the contest.
Vergil Jr. vs. Bohachuk Punch Stats
– Ortiz Jr: 265 of 732 punches for 43%
– Bohachuk: 225 of 817 for 36%
Ortiz Jr. came up under the power of Bohachuk, took a lot of facial damage, was injured in subsequent rounds, and was given for glove repair. It seems he used it to recover.
It will be a different kind of fight against Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs), who is faster, more technical, and just as powerful as Bohachuk with his right hand. Vergil Jr’s best chance to win this fight is pressure because he doesn’t have the skills that Madrimov has going for him.
Former WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov will likely be more aggressive than he was in losing to Terence Crawford, but he won’t use the forward pressure that Bohachuk displayed. It’s not his style. However, Madrimov possesses the power and timing to hurt Ortiz Jr. if he tries to take him down like he did with most of his opponents in his eight-year professional career.
Grudge Match
Vergil Jr. and Madrimov have different views on how their sparring went in the past. In an interview with Fight Hub TV, Madrimov, 29, said that he is not “100%” during sparring and said that Vergil Jr. he was just a “normal” boxer.
Ortiz Jr. he said to Fight Hub TV on Madrimov’s comments, “He said: ‘He’s a normal boxer, and we’re just going to play with him.’ For me, that’s throwing shade.”
Madrimov: “There is nothing to say really. We had a good sparring. He is athletic, he is fast. I helped him in his preparation for his fight at that time. We exchanged experiences. I don’t know what else to tell you
Former amateur star Madrimov lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Terence Crawford in his last fight on August 3 in Los Angeles. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 115-113.
Many boxing fans later felt that Madrimov was close to beating Crawford and that he would have won if he had turned up the heat in the championship rounds. It made Crawford, 37, look his age in that fight.
