Although Vergil Ortiz will have adequately trained for it, and indeed one day expected it, still nothing can fully prepare a puncher for the first time their opponent soaks up everything they throw at them and hardly blinks. It is usually in this moment the puncher confronts self-doubt and wonders if it is even possible to win a fight without having made some sort of impression on or dent in the opponent in front of them. It is during this moment, too, that we sometimes see the puncher succumb to the panic and nervous energy and either punch themselves out in an effort to punch through this anxiety or simply collapse, often dramatically.
For Vergil Ortiz, owner of 21 straight knockout wins, there was always a chance tonight’s (August 10) opponent Serhii Bohachuk would be the one to finally end the run. Bohachuk, after all, brought to their super welterweight fight a 24-1 record and is a noted puncher himself, with 23 of his 24 wins coming inside schedule. Yet still, regardless of the evident danger, nothing can prepare a puncher like Ortiz for that moment: that moment when the opponent shakes off the same punches that once caused so much harm when landed on the faces and bodies of previous opponents.
That he ultimately passed this test with flying colors, winning via majority decision (113-113, 114-112, 114-112), is a testament to Ortiz’s mindset. It is a testament to not only his mindset, but also his composure and his punch repertoire, both of which the Texan would need to navigate his way around Bohachuk, a man as resolute and ambitious in round 12 as he was in the first.
In that round, the first, Bohachuk immediately made the center of the ring his home and from this position got busy with long punches, finding success, in particular, with the right cross. It was with this shot he clipped Ortiz early, causing the favorite to touch the canvas, and already, it seemed, the Ukrainian had both his timing and a control of the distance.
Ortiz, in response, came back firing, eager to return the favor. Embarrassed, he first complained about his early stumble and then, when realizing no good would come of it, attacked Bohachuk with the kind of fire and intensity for which he is known, working two hands in combination. In these exchanges there were countless eye-catching moments, including an Ortiz right uppercut in round three which pierced the Bohachuk guard, and a long right hand over the top which caught Bohachuk’s attention in the fifth. Both shots were thrown with a whiff of desperation, sure, but were well-picked, brutal shots nonetheless.
Undeterred, Bohachuk continued to methodically go about his work and by the fight’s second half appeared the fresher of the two. His jab, which worked better than Ortiz’s, was used to good effect throughout and also his cross, which was straighter than Ortiz’s, would regularly find its home, too. In fact, whenever there happened to be space between the pair – space, that is, to throw straighter shots – it looked as though Bohachuk, the taller man, had the upper hand and felt relatively comfortable. This proved the case in the eighth round when Bohachuk, having measured Ortiz with a jab, stepped back slightly to allow Ortiz to walk into a left hook thrown on the retreat. A smart trap, and a clean punch, this move would cause Ortiz to touch the canvas with his gloves for the second time in the fight.
Mind you, Ortiz, annoyed to have been counted, again responded to the knockdown well. He refused to give Bohachuk any momentum off the back of it and instead charged after his opponent with a certain indignation, lining him up with his left hand while chopping away with rights around the side.
Now, for maybe the first time in the fight, it was Bohachuk who was being forced to concede ground and cover up. Now suddenly it was Ortiz who had Bohachuk hurt, with two right hands, thrown one after the other, responsible for much of the damage.
As wild as it was urgent, Ortiz’s reaction in round eight was that of a man accepting his fate; accepting once and for all that this was going to be a different kind of fight than the norm and would therefore require a different kind of performance. He ended the round – arguably one of the best this year – with almost a smile on his face, relishing this difference.
The 11th wasn’t bad, either. In that round Bohachuk would again steady Ortiz with a straight right before Ortiz, now punching freely and with abandonment, came back with a looping left hook of his own, in turn hurting and wobbling Bohachuk. A right uppercut then swiftly followed, along with several other shots, and it looked at that stage as though Ortiz might finally get what he both expected and desired coming into the fight: a stoppage.
Bohachuk, though, refused to give in. Instead, he fired back with a right hand of his own, which tempered Ortiz’s excitement somewhat, and by the end of the round had regained both the strength in his legs and his poise. By that point it was Bohauck who was coming forward behind stiff right crosses, while Ortiz appeared to have punched himself out.
That is the other thing about punchers, of course: just because they have been hurt, and just because the final bell creeps ever closer, does not mean they forget their default setting, nor feel any less capable of landing that One Big Punch. This was true of both Ortiz and Bohachuk, with the pair convinced even in round 12 that the three ringside judges were unnecessary. That round, like so many previous rounds, was one defined by numerous quality exchanges, only now the punches were a tad slower, the hands held a little lower, and the escape moves not quite so slick. Both men were tired, in other words, and yet still, to their credit, they would not let up, give ground, or allow their opposite number to detect their fatigue.
Indeed, this was not a case of two punchers realizing they couldn’t hurt an opponent and then reverting to a different style of fighting; boxing more, perhaps, or cruising to a decision finish. Rather, what you had with Ortiz and Bohachuk tonight was an example of two punchers whose unwavering belief in their power and ability to hurt delivered in the end exactly what you would expect: a serious Fight of the Year contender.
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.jpg?w=406&resize=406,250&ssl=1 "Sam Goodman on wanting Naoya Inoue, running his own race and walking his dog")
