Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis says Vergil Ortiz Jr. isn’t ready to fight Terence Crawford next in February after watching his performance against Sergii Bohachuk last Saturday night.
Bozy feels that Vergil (22-0, 21 KOs) loads up on his punches too much, looking for knockouts, and is too emotional after he gets hit. Those thoughts were echoed by Ryan Garcia, who beat Vergil Ortiz Jr. in the amateurs and noticed he loads up on his shots and always wants to fire back after he’s been hit immediately.
According to Bozy, Vergil isn’t ready for Crawford, but it’s unclear if he ever will be. Vergil is a basic slugger, and Crawford does well against limited fighters like him. There’s no bells and whistles with Vergil’s game. He comes in slugging, eats a lot of shots, and tries to knock out his opponents. His fight against Bohachuk last weekend was his first against an A-level fighter, and he didn’t look great.
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh is reportedly interested in scheduling a fight between Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Ortiz Jr. Vergil says he wants the Crawford fight and has no interest in giving Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy over their fight.
Vergil took a lot of punishment against Bohachuk, eating massive shots, getting dropped twice, and winding up looking like the loser. Unless Crawford, 36, gets old in the next six months, he’ll likely dominate Vergil and finish what Bohachuk started.
In this case, Crawford is popular enough to be given the decision if he wins and not be given the business by the judges.
“I don’t think Vergil is ready for Crawford right now. The reason I’m saying this is because the performance he did just did [against Serhii Bohachuk]. You can’t be fighting Crawford like that,” said Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to the YSM Sports Media YouTube channel about Vergil Ortiz Jr. not being ready for Terence Crawford.
If this is about money for Vergil, it’s good for him because he’ll make millions in a losing effort against Crawford. If he’s going to lose to someone, he might as well get paid the most amount of money, and that would be against Crawford unless he wants to move up to 168 to go after Canelo at some point.
“Crawford can punch also. I think it’ll be a good fight from the beginning, but I think Crawford wins that fight,” said Bozy. “I think Crawford can stop him. I’m looking at the way he fought, and then I looked at Vergil. Vergil can take a shot. It might go the distance, but I still got Crawford winning.”
Vergil can take a good punch, so the only way Crawford knocks him out is if he’s willing to get into a war with him, and he’s not going to do that. Vergil won’t be weight-drained like Errol Spence, and he’s still a lot younger at 26.
“What Vergil really needs to do is stop trying to knock everybody out,” said Bozy. “That’s what he really needs to do. When he first came out there, hit [Bohachuk] hit him with a good shot, and he just goes off. It looked like to me. Instead of keep using that jab like Robert was telling him. ‘Use your jab.’”
I don’t think Vergil Jr. will stop trying to knock everyone out because that’s his style, and he’s going to stick with it due to his ego and his anger problem. He seems to get angry when he gets hit, and that’s been there from the beginning of his career. Even his trainer, Robert Garcia, tells him not to retaliate; he will do so after he gets hit, and Crawford will take advantage of that.
“Then he got away from it for a while. He’s got to be smart. You mess with Crawford, you really got to be on the ball,” said Bozy. “Crawford is a good counter-puncher. Imagine if that was Crawford and the way Crawford counter-punches. He can’t be going to Crawford like that.
“Bohachuk, to me, he’s not a puncher. He was just hitting you with an accumulation of punches. It wasn’t nothing devastating. Ortz, you could see that he was sitting down on those shots, but he was missing a lot of shots too, though. That could have took effect on him, too. He was missing a lot of shots,” said Bozy about Vergil Jr.
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