Interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he immediately agreed to fight Israil Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis opted not to fight on the Feb. 22 card in Riyadh.
Vergil Jr. he shouldn’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 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 advantage. It is much 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 it left Crawford the job despite having less power, size and youth. Terence just wanted more. Vergil Jr. and his team probably saw the low production of Madrimov, which may be a reason they agreed to fight. He may be out of work.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) says it “motivates” him in training camp when he prepares to fight a good opponent. However, he has only fought one good opponent during his nine-year career, beating interim WBC 154lb champion Bohachuk by a highly questionable 12-round majority decision on August 10 last year in Las Vegas.
Vergil was taken down twice by Bohachuk, hitting the bridge in the first and eight. He protested the first down, saying it was a slip, but replays showed it was a down.
Many boxing fans had lost to Vergil, and felt he was handed a decision over the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. he 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 advances followed by a dark cloud.
Besides Bohachuk, Vergil’s only other notable win on his resume came against Egidijus
Kavaliauskas. He was knocked out 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, it’s not the kind of performance 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, fight Madrimov?” I’m like, ‘Yeah, I have. It’s a great fight. The reason I said yes is because he’s a tough fighter.
“I’m a very competitive person. It motivates me in the training camps when I know I have a tough fight ahead. It keeps me focused. I know there’s a lot on the line (against Madrimov), but I like it. It’s an adrenaline rush,” he said Vergil Jr.
This will be Vergil’s second good opponent in his career, and it will be interesting to see how he performs. “Little GGG” Madrimov can punch with both hands, and has excellent boxing skills. Again, it does not have a high production, and its stamina is poor. 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 two,” Gareth A. Davies told Vergil Jr. about what happened with the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis that didn’t happen. “It’s a fight we all want to see. There are 40 fights between the two of you. Do you feel he (Ennis) avoids 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 who’s lying,” Ortiz Jr. said. on his belief that someone in Ennis’s team is not sincere. “We as boxers, we are not the ones who negotiate. We do not communicate. We have managers for a reason.
“I’m not saying it’s his manager because there are so many people who 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, ‘Yes.’ I believe so. It’s a fight that needs to happen,” Ortiz Jr. said. when he was asked if he believes he will eventually fight Jaron Ennis.
