Vergil Ortiz Jr. proved much by going the distance with a hellacious fighter like Serhii Bohachuk, overcoming the brutal scorecard effects of two flash knockdowns and winning the championship rounds even though he’d never been to the 10th round in his career.
In his first interview since that Aug. 10 majority decision victory to capture the WBC interim junior-middleweight belt, Texas’ Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) told BoxingScene how powerfully the performance has affected him.
“It really boosts my confidence because I know I can be in that type of fight. I’m not always going to be in that kind of fight … but this shows I’m always going to have it the energy to do what I need to do, and it can be there in the 12th round.”
Ortiz, 26, swept the final three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
“I already knew I could go 12 rounds. Everyone else had those doubts in their mind: ‘What happens when he goes 12 rounds? Is he going to look great?’” Ortiz said. “I saw people saying I’d get stopped, that he was going to be too much for me, that I was going to gas out. It was almost fun in there for me because I went those 12 rounds very easily and I still had a lot of energy. I could’ve gone 12 more.”
That night, Saudi Arabia’s boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh said he wanted to make a Crawford fight against newly belted junior-middleweight and four-division Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) after Crawford eked out a narrow unanimous-decision victory one week earlier over former WBA 154-pound champion Israil Madrimov.
But Crawford, at 154 pounds and now less than a month away from his 37th birthday, wasn’t the same destructive force who’d stopped 11 consecutive foes, including the July 2023 four-knockdown demolition of former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
And Crawford, instead of jumping at the Alalshikh funds, apparently told him he only wants to fight Canelo Alvarez next – another four-division champion who resides a staggering two weight classes above Madrimov – whom Crawford failed to hurt or back up in their bout.
Knowing he’s taken Bohachuk’s best shots and seeing where Crawford is, Ortiz said this when asked if the events make him believe he’s the best 154-pound fighter in the world:
“I’m more than confident I can beat everyone in the division. I feel like I’m the best in this division,” Ortiz said.
That’s the boldest of statements considering the list of active junior-middleweights also counts unified champion Sebastian Fundora, former champion Tim Tszyu, new IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Spence.
“I just need the fights to show that,” Ortiz said. “I’m willing to fight anyone. I’ve never turned a fight down. The WBO president (“Paco” Valcarcel) said I did. I never turned any fight down. If they want to bring the fight with Crawford now, I would love that fight. He’s arguably the world’s (best) pound-for-pound (fighter). That’s a great fight to make.”
Crawford has his own reasons for telling Alalshikh of his Canelo tunnel vision.
Ortiz, who responded harshly to some Bohachuk camp trash talk by not shaking the fighter’s hand at their news conference, isn’t about to accuse Crawford of sidestepping the most demanding assignment at 154 pounds – even if it seems the veteran champion has taken a rare step of avoidance.
“I don’t think so. (Crawford) genuinely has that big super-fight in mind and I can’t say I’m bigger than Canelo Alvarez with a straight face, for sure. I see why Crawford wants that fight,” Ortiz said. “But a fight with me is more realistic.
“I really don’t know what to think. (Crawford wanting to move to 168 is) a massive jump. He wants to test himself just like I do, but … Crawford just moved up from 147. And he wants to fight Canelo at 168 … I’m not saying Crawford doesn’t have the skills to do it, but as far as me wanting to challenge Crawford, (him) wanting to challenge Canelo is a bit more unrealistic.”
For now, Ortiz said he is relaxing from the rugged Bohachuk bout and has shared talks with Alalshikh and Ortiz’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya.
“I have been asked who I want to fight, and my answer every time is, ‘I don’t care, just bring me a fight,’” Ortiz said. “That always leaves options open. If I don’t fight soon, it’s not my fault, because I’m open to fight anybody.
“I would love to fight as soon as I can. We’ve got the train going. Why stop? It’s not up to me, though. I’m more than ready and will stay ready.”
Although Bohachuk, his promoter, Tom Loeffler, and trainer Manny Robles railed at the judging, Ortiz said he’s convinced he won the bout.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Ortiz said. “I felt like I landed more punches. My punches were more effective. I was pushing him back most of the time. I was never in serious trouble at any point, but I had him wobbled multiple times – more than once. Look, I’m my own worst critic, and I still feel I won the fight convincingly.
“The only reason the fight was close was because of the knockdowns (and 10-8 rounds). The first one, technically, was a knockdown. I was not hurt. I got up and said, ‘I can’t believe that … happened.’ The ref didn’t call it, I didn’t argue. And then they counted it later (following a video replay before the fifth round), which was fine. The second one (in the eighth round) shouldn’t have been a knockdown. It’s whatever. I still won the fight.”
The adversity of knowing he was confronting a scorecard deficit shook Ortiz and he responded as the greats of the past have.
“The second (knockdown), I got mad. I just started wailing on him, (thinking), ‘You’re not getting away with that one,’” he said.
“That’s what I’m made of. I’m very prideful at times. I do try my best not to let my emotions get the best of me. But that round, I was like, ‘F*ck that … I was like, ‘Do it again then! Can you do it again?’ And I was never in real trouble again. OK, it was a knockdown, but what happened the rest of that fight?”
Isn’t this how fight fans want their fighters to think?
This is why De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions team are so high on Ortiz’s future.
“Yeah, I (understand). That’s just how I am,” Ortiz said.
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