Promoter Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that he’s going to press ahead for a unification fight between WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz and WBA champ Terence Crawford next after Vergil’s twelve-round majority decision win over Serhii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) last Saturday night at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
De La Hoya said it would be up to Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs) to decide whether to fight Crawford next, and he has stated that he wants that matchup rather than a rematch with Bohachuk. The judges gave the win to Vergil by the scores 113-113, 114-112, and 114-112. It didn’t look like Vergil had won, though.
There’s controversy surrounding Vergil Ortiz’s win against Bohachuk because he was dropped twice in the fight in rounds one and eight. The argument that De La Hoya and pro-Vergil fans have that the two knockdowns were the result of slips is immaterial. Those knockdowns counted, and Vergil had to make up a lot of points.
It didn’t appear that he won enough rounds to win the victory over Bohachuk, who was pressuring him nonstop, forcing him to move to survive in rounds 9 through 12.
Bohahuk pushed the fight in the last tail end of the fight against a worn-out, tired, beaten-up-looking Vergil. It’s fair to say the judges gave Vergil a gift based on his better marketability, but not because of what he did in the ring. It was a Devin Haney vs. Vasily Lomachenko type of gift.
De La Hoya Pushes for Crawford Unification Bout
“I feel Vergil won. Yeah, we’ll talk about that. We discussed that with His Excellency. If that’s what Vergil wants, then that’s what we’re going to give him,” said Oscar De La Hoya to the media about Veril Ortiz Jr. fighting Terence Crawford next after his win over WBC interim 154-lb champion Serhii Bohachuk last Saturday.
It doesn’t matter if they were slips. They still counted as knockdowns. The Nevada judges gave Vergil rounds that he didn’t appear to win, like the 12th. He was worked over by Bohachuk in round 12 and needed a timeout to have his gloves re-taped.
“He was pressing the fight. There were not two knockdowns. They changed the second one, but Vergil Ortiz pressed the whole night; he fought the whole night against a tough Bohachuk. I said it was going to be a Fight of The Year, and it was Fight of The Year. But I did feel Vergil won,” said De La Hoya.
Oscar has it wrong. Bohachuk was “pressing the fight,” not Vergil Ortiz. He was boxing in the last four rounds to keep from getting knocked out.
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