Pick It: Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Serhii Bohachuk
When to Watch: Saturday, Aug. 10, 8 p.m. eastern Time (1 a.m. BST) for the main broadcast.
How to watch: DAZN for the main broadcast, Golden Boy Promotions’ YouTube page for the preliminary bouts.
Why to Watch: Violence. Aggression. Entertainment.
That’s what’s expected when junior middleweights Ortiz and Bohachuk share the ring this Saturday, headlining at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
How could we expect otherwise? Ortiz and Bohachuk have stepped into the ring a combined 46 times as professional fighters. Only once has one of their matches made it to the final bell.
Ortiz is 21-0 (21 KOs). The 26-year-old from Dallas is a former junior welterweight prospect and welterweight contender who moved up to the 154-pound weight class earlier this year.
That move was out of necessity, following some health issues that sidelined Ortiz and stalled his momentum.
Among those health issues was a diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis, in which muscle tissue breaks down, enters the bloodstream and threatens the kidneys. Ortiz was off for nearly 12 months between his August 2021 win over Egidijus Kavaliauskas and a rescheduled August 2022 fight with Michael McKinson. He then spent another 17 months on the shelf between the McKinson victory and this past January’s return, at junior middleweight, against Fredrick Lawson.
One fight that was supposed to have taken place during that second layoff, and which would have moved Ortiz’s career forward, was with fellow welterweight contender Eimantas Stanionis. Alas, it never took place. The Stanionis match was postponed twice — first when Stanionis had to have his appendix removed, then when Ortiz’s rhabdomyolysis returned — before being called off altogether when Ortiz fainted from dehydration.
Ortiz has had a pair of first-round knockouts this year, stopping Fredrick Lawson controversially and then making short work of faded and undersized Thomas Dulorme in April.
Ortiz was initially supposed to face Tim Tszyu on this past weekend’s pay-per-view undercard of Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Crawford, but plans changed when Tszyu’s gruesome injury from the Sebastian Fundora fight earlier this year hadn’t healed enough for medical clearance. Thankfully, Ortiz’s next appearance was pushed back only by one week — and his bout with Bohachuk should be just as aesthetically pleasing as the Tszyu fight would’ve been.
Bohachuk is a 29-year-old from Ukraine now fighting out of Los Angeles. He is 24-1 (23 KOs). That loss came via eighth-round TKO against Brandon Adams back in 2021. Bohachuk has won six straight since, going the distance for the first time in March, when he dominated Brian Mendoza.
Bohachuk wasn’t originally supposed to face Mendoza on that card, a pay-per-view originally scheduled with a headliner of Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman. Instead, Bohachuk was supposed to face Fundora for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title.
But Thurman got hurt in training camp and Fundora stepped in, with that WBC belt on the line alongside Tszyu’s WBO title. Fundora won that fight, and Bohachuk was supposedly going to be next in line.
Instead, Bohachuk is meeting Ortiz, with the winner expected to be a contender in a junior middleweight division that is in the process of reshuffling. The winner will of course have an eye on fights with Fundora or Terence Crawford. This would be a fun fight no matter what, but the stakes should only add to their violent intentions.
On the undercard:
Undefeated junior middleweight prospect Charles Conwell will meet Khiary Gray. Conwell, 19-0 (14 KOs), was off for nearly a year and a half before returning this April, scoring a sixth-round technical knockout of Nathaniel Gallimore. Gray is 18-6 (13 KOs) and returned last December from his own 25-month layoff.
Junior welterweight Kenneth Sims will face Jair Valtierra. Sims, 20-2-1 (7 KOs), last fought in May 2023, when he took a majority decision over Akhmedov. That extended Sims’ winning streak to seven in a row since a 2018 decision loss to Samuel Teah. Valtierra is 17-3 (9 KOs), with two of those defeats coming via decision to prospects Raymond Muratalla in 2022 and Lindolfo Delgado in 2023.
Gabriela Fundora will defend her IBF flyweight world title against Daniela Asenjo. Fundora is one-half of a pair of titleholder siblings, the other half being junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora. Gabriela, 13-0 (6 KOs), knocked out Arely Mucino in five rounds for the belt last October and defended it in January with a 10th-round TKO of Christina Cruz. Asenjo is 16-3-3 (2 KOs) and is coming off a March decision victory over Victoria Torres Canul.
And opening the main broadcast, welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte, 3-0 (3 KOs), will meet Pablo Polanco Fernandez, 11-16 (4 KOs).
As for the prelims, there will be several fights, including a world title fight between unified junior middleweight titleholder Ema Kozin and former undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus. Kozin is the WBC and WBO titleholder, picking up both of those vacant belts with a split decision over Hannah Rankin in November 2023. She is 24-1-1 (12 KOs). Braekhus is 37-2-1 (9 KOs), suffering those defeats in championship losses to Jessica McCaskill in 2020 and 2021. Braekhus has since had two contests at 154, fighting to a draw with titleholder Terri Harper last October.
The rest of the card features a number of prospects, including middleweight Eric Priest, 13-0 (8 KOs); lightweight Johnny Canas, 4-0 (2 KOs); bantamweight Figo Ramirez, 6-0 (3 KOs); debuting bantamweight Jordan Fuentes and debuting women’s welterweight Jennah Creason.
More Fights to Watch
Friday, Aug. 9: Angel Ayala vs. Dave Apolinario (ESPN+)
The broadcast begins at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
Ayala and Apolinario are two undefeated flyweights meeting for the IBF title left vacant when Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez moved up to 115.
Ayala is a 24-year-old from Mexico City, which means he’ll be fighting in front of his hometown crowd. Among Ayala’s victories in recent years: outpointing contender Cristofer Rosales in 2022 and, in his last appearance, taking a razor-thin decision over former junior flyweight titleholder Felix Alvarado last October. He is 17-0 (7 KOs).
Apolinario, a 25-year-old from General Santos City in the Philippines, is 20-0 (14 KOs). There isn’t much of note on his record. In Apolinario’s last two fights, he traveled to Japan to outpoint a 23-5 foe named Brian Mosinos and a 12-1 opponent named Tanes Ongjunta.
Saturday, Aug. 10: Luis Alberto Lopez vs. Angelo Leo (ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ in the United States, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland)
The preliminary broadcast begins at 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time (11:40 p.m. BST). The main broadcast begins at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (3 a.m. BST).
Lopez is the defending titleholder, but Leo is the hometown hero.
Lopez won the IBF featherweight belt with a majority decision over Josh Warrington in December 2022. Since then he’s made three successful defenses, stopping Michael Conlan, outpointing Joet Gonzalez and scoring a TKO of Reiya Abe. That brought the 30-year-old from Mexicali, Mexico, to 30-2 (17 KOs). His losses came against Abraham Montoya (via split decision in 2018) and Ruben Villa (a unanimous decision in 2019).
Lopez has an awkward style that looks beatable, but his recent opponents have promptly realized that looks are deceiving. Can Leo do something that they were unable to?
The 30-year-old Leo is 24-1 (11 KOs). He won a vacant world title at junior featherweight in 2020, outpointing Tramaine Williams. Leo’s reign was brief; he lost the belt to Stephen Fulton less than six months later. After one more fight at 122, Leo moved up to 126.
Leo’s stayed busy in recent months, fighting three times between November and April, stopping Nicolas Polanco, knocking out Mike Plania and taking a unanimous decision over Eduardo Baez.
They will fight at the Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“I’m honored to fight for my second world title, especially in my hometown of Albuquerque. I couldn’t ask for more,” Leo was quoted as saying in a press release. “I know Lopez is one of the top champions in my division, and a win over him would be huge for me and my city. I’m in the prime of my career and can’t wait to show the world the fighter I’ve become since winning my first world title in 2020.”
Lopez says that he’ll ruin Leo’s party. After all, he went to Leeds to beat Warrington, Belfast to beat Conlan.
“I know he is the local fighter, but you already know what happens when I enter enemy territory,” Lopez was quoted as saying.
The co-featured bout will see a fight between unbeaten junior welterweights Lindolfo Delgado, 20-0 (15 KOs), and Bryan Flores, 26-0-1 (15 KOs).
And the preliminary broadcast includes a fight between undefeated flyweights Abraham Perez, 10-0 (5 KOs) and Matthew Griego, 14-0 (10 KOs); plus appearances by lightweight prospect Alan Garcia, 13-0 (10 KOs); featherweight Arnold Khegai, 21-1-1 (13 KOs); and junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr., 18-1 (12 KOs).
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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