FightPost Boxer of the Week: Vergil Ortiz

FightPost Boxer of the Week: Vergil Ortiz

By Gary Kittilsen

On the week that featured the biggest fight of the year, a fight featuring one of the two biggest names in the sport in a unification bout logically the winner of that fight would be our Fighter Of The Week. Someone else would have to do something truly special to capture the award. The 21-year old Vergil Ortiz did just that to snatch this weeks award.

Ortiz once again showed the world why he is considered one of the best prospects in the sport. Ortiz came out in very impressive fashion in the opening two rounds. Constantly backing Herrera down with a shotgun jab and following up with vicious straight right hands that seemed to dent Herrera every time they landed.

With the second round coming to an end Ortiz went from looking very impressive to looking like a killer tattooing his opponent with a straight right hand and then battering him with a whirlwind of punches that sent him flailing to the canvas as the bell rang to the end the second. Herrera never recovered and was still on very unsteady legs as the third round began. Ortiz jumped on his hurt opponent and landed two big straight rights and put a left-hook behind it that knocked Herrera out cold before hitting the mat. Giving Ortiz the third round KO.

Following the performance, the typically very critical Ortiz expressed satisfaction with his performance saying

“I’m actually pretty proud of this fight. If you know me and kept up with my fights, I’m usually not satisfied with my performance, I am very satisfied with my performance tonight. Everyone thinks that I don’t have all that experience just because I’m 13-0 now. People don’t realize I work in the gym hard every day. I spar world champions all the time.”

Ortiz and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya have spoken about getting him a world title fight before 2019 is over. Ortiz has called out WBO 140-pound champion Maurice Hooker also of Texas, countless times and a fight between the two Texans would be a massive draw, in their home state. The fighters know each other well and both have a relatively large following in Texas. The fight could also be made very easily as Hooker is signed with Matchroom and Ortiz is inked to Golden Boy and both of those promotional companies have contracted to exclusively stream on DAZN. If a Hooker fight the other available champion is WBC champ Jose Carlos Ramirez who is Signed to Top Rank. The other champions in the division are tied up in the WBSS tournament.

Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing USA