Promoter Oscar De La Hoya took to social media to angrily defend his fighter, Vergil Ortiz Jr., over his robbery victory against WBC interim Junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk last Saturday night. De La Hoya tagged Vergil Jr. in his venomous post.
Still reeling over the backlash his fighter Vergil Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) is receiving from the boxing world over his controversy, De La Hoya posted a picture of the CompuBox Stats, which didn’t portray a flattering view of Ortiz Jr’s fight.
Stats Don’t Lie
The stats affirmed what fans had seen from the fight: Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) had gotten the better of Vergil Jr. but was shafted by the judging crew from Nevada.
“You don’t know [blank] about boxing!! And the new!!!!!!
@VergilOrtiz,” said De La Hoya on X, reacting to the CompuBox stats.
De La Hoya’s lashing out at CompuBox doesn’t make much sense because it’s stats, and it’s not their fault that they don’t flatter Vergil to make him look like he won the fight. Even if they did, the fans saw what happened that night and overwhelmingly viewed Bohachuk as the true winner.
After the fight, De La Hoya and Vergil’s trainer, Robert Garcia, said that they want Terence Crawford next for Ortiz Jr. If they choose to do that without doing the right thing and running it back against Bohachuk, the PPV numbers for the Crawford fight won’t be good.
Having Vergil Jr. back into a fight against Crawford after a controversial decision would hurt the event’s sales because fans would see it as a tainted fight. This is not only because of Vergil’s controversial win but also because of Crawford, who is coming off of a questionable 12-round decision against WBA Junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd in Los Angeles.
Madrimov landed the harder, cleaner shots in every round of the fight and had Crawford looking old. All Crawford could do was throw Jabs, and it wasn’t nearly enough to outweigh the right hands he was getting hit with by Madrimov. Those shots were snapping Crawford’s head sideways.
The Call for a Rematch
Instead of De La Hoya getting mad at CompuBox, he should do the right thing by having Vergil give Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy. If De La Hoya believes Vergil won and is the next superstar, he should do the rematch. If Vergil can’t beat Bohachuk without the judges’ help, he won’t go far in the sport.
He can’t win controversial decisions every time, and he will have many problems against the other top fighters at 154 because he’s just an everyday run-of-the-mill slugger.
As one of our writers mentioned, Vergil Ortiz Jr. is a modern-day Alfredo Angulo, and that’s the reality. He’s a weaker version of a young Angulo because that guy could punch when he was young.
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