Vergil Ortiz Jr. kept his unbeaten record intact with a twelve-round majority decision in a thrilling fight against WBC interim Junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk on Saturday night in front of an amped-up crowd at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
The scores were 113-113, 114-112 and 114-112.
First round Knockdown
Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs) hit the deck in round one after getting nailed by a left hook by Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs). The referee ruled it initially as a slip. However, later in the fight, the video replay overturned the call, changing it to a knockdown.
That seemed to fire up Vergil as he went on the attack, fighting like a man possessed, trying to make up for the knockdown.
Ortiz Jr. slugged with Bohachuk, trying hard to score a knockout, but it wasn’t happening. In the eighth round, Bohachuk knocked Ortiz down for a second time with a right hand.
Although Ortiz complained that it was from a slip, a punch had landed, causing the knockdown, which the referee had no choice but to score as a knockdown.
Ortiz’s Late Surge
In the championship rounds, 9 through 12, Vergil Jr. came on strong, appearing to hurt Bohacuk several times with big shots. However, Bohachuk appeared to have Vergil Jr. hurt twice in the last two rounds, forcing him to box from the outside and clinch.
What got Vergil Jr. the win was being busier in the last four rounds against a tiring Bohachuk. Bohachuk landed the harder shots in those rounds, but Vergil was busier and did a good job of boxing.
Vergil had to deal with bloody nose a cut over his left eye, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Many of the rounds were tough to score because both guys were landing huge bombs. Bohachuk knocked Vergil down twice, which normally results in a victory, but this is Nevada, so it’s not a shock that the American fighter got the win. There’s a potential big fight looming for Vergil against Terence Crawford.
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