LAS VEGAS — There’s been plenty of talk about who Vergil Ortiz could face if he defeats Serhii Bohachuk this Saturday.
Ortiz’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, said on Wednesday that he wants Ortiz vs. Terence Crawford in the first quarter of 2025. And on Thursday, De La Hoya raised the idea of Ortiz taking on Tim Tszyu later this year.
Some of this narrative may admittedly be coming from us in the media.
We tend to ask questions not only about what’s now, but about what could come next. Either way, Bohachuk’s promoter feels like Ortiz’s team may be taking their eyes off what’s directly in front of them.
“I think the Vergil Ortiz side is overlooking Serhii when they’re talking about making all these plans for future opponents. And Serhii is 100% focused on Vergil Ortiz,” said Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions, who spoke with reporters on Thursday.
Bohachuk and Ortiz have some history with each other, back when they both were trained by Manny Robles. Ortiz has since returned to having Robert Garcia in his corner.
“They’ve sparred before. They know each other. Serhii feels very confident from that sparring,” Loeffler said. “You can see physically he’s the bigger guy up there with the face-off that they did. If he can beat Brian Mendoza in style [which Bohachuk did in March] and beat Vergil Ortiz, then the sky’s the limit for Serhii Bohachuk at 154.”
And so of course we reporters asked Loeffler the same type of questions that we did of Ortiz’s team. Sure, Bohachuk may be wholly focused on Ortiz, but what does the fighter’s promoter envision after this weekend?
“The great thing about the junior middleweight division right now is there’s so many great fighters, so many great names,” Loeffler responded. “Regardless of what happens on Saturday night, either one of these fighters won’t have a problem landing another big fight. Vergil is still young, so if he loses he’s still a very exciting fighter. I’m sure they can parlay that into another big fight. And Serhii, there’s so many names. There’s [Jermell] Charlo, there’s [Sebastian] Fundora, there’s Tszyu, Crawford now, [Israil] Madrimov. There’s so many names that both of them will be able to land future big fights.”
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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