Junior middleweight Brandon Adams, who holds a victory over Serhii Bohachuk, believes Bohachuk has an edge against Vergil Ortiz in their upcoming bout on Saturday at Michelob ULTRA Arena, Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Adams (24-3, 16 KOs), competing in the semi-finals of the OTX 10 tournament, faces Francisco Daniel Veron (14-0-1, 10 KOs) on August 30 at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. A win would put Adams in line to fight the winner of Andreas Katzourakis-Robert Terry.
“Bohachuk has size, Vergil is explosive,” Adams said. “Bohachuk is naturally the bigger guy, and the style that Bohachuk brings—that volume of work, not just punches, but the fact that he’s going to be moving forward—I would love to see how Vergil tries to contain him and beat him.”
Since their March 2021 bout in Puerto Rico, both Adams, 34, and Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs) have experienced changes. Adams knocked out Ismael Villarreal in April, while Bohachuk, 29, has fought six times and secured the interim WBC junior middleweight title by defeating Brian Mendoza. Adams was down on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage but landed telling body shots that set up a big leaping left hook to stop the Ukrainian.
“I think it’s going to be extremely hard because he is naturally a smaller guy used to fighting smaller guys,” Adams said of Ortiz fighting Bohachuk. “When he was fighting at a certain weight, he was the bigger man, but this time around, he won’t be.”
Los Angeles’ own Adams rates Bohachuk’s power as “respectable,” comparing it to Antonio Margarito’s thudding shots and scoring it at 7 1/2 or 8 out of 10. Ortiz has won all his fights via knockout, including two first-round knockouts in 2024.
“I don’t necessarily have a winner in mind other than the fact that Bohachuk has been in tough fights,” Adams said. “He knows how to swarm people, and he’s naturally the bigger guy.”
Adams also believes that his fight against Vernon could mirror his fight with Bohachuk.
“In a sense, he is kind of like Bohachuk,” Adams said. “But more so of the Argentine’s style, and I think Francisco can beat anybody if they’re not on their game. He’s got nice size for super welterweight. I think he has good power.”
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