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Interim WBC Junior Middleweight Champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he immediately agreed to fight Israil Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis decided not to fight him on February 22nd in Riyadh.
Virgil Jr. he must not be involved in another controversial decision heading his way, as it looked bad for him to win by controversial decision in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk. If he gets too many, it will limit his star power.
Worries about a small outlet
Madrimov has the skills and power to make this a tough fight for Ortiz Jr., but he doesn’t land many punches, which should give Virgil Jr. a significant advantage. He is much busier.
In Madrimov’s loss to Terence Crawford, he didn’t throw enough in the championship rounds and was outplayed. It was a fight to win, but he allowed Crawford to outplay him despite having less power, size and youth. Terence just wanted it more. Virgil Jr. and his team probably noticed Madrimov’s poor performance, which may be one of the reasons they agreed to fight him. It can be surpassed.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) says it “motivates” him in training camp as he prepares to fight a good opponent. However, he has only fought one good opponent during his nine-year career, defeating interim WBC 154lb champion Bohachuk by a highly questionable 12-round majority decision on August 10 last year in Las Vegas.
Virgil was taken down twice by Bohachuk, hitting the deck in the first and eighth. He protested the first knockdown, saying it was a slip, but replays showed it was a knockdown.
Many boxing fans lost Vergil and thought he won a decision over the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. received a lot of criticism from people when he decided not to give Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy. Turki Al-Sheikh could have insisted on fighting, and Virgil Jr. probably would have. That never happened, so now Virgil moves on followed by a dark cloud.
Apart from Bohachuk, Virgil’s only significant victory in his biography was against Aegidius
Kavaliauskas. He was stunned at the start of the fight, but somehow survived and scored a knockout in the eighth round.
Can Madrimov win?
“It’s a great fight on paper. He just had a great fight against Crawford. It went really well. Even though he lost, it’s not the kind of performance you can be ashamed of. “He was great,” Vergil Ortiz Jr. said talkSport Boxing on Israil Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.
“We wanted to fight ‘Boot’, but the fight failed.” So I was thinking, ‘Am I still on the card?’ It was kind of up in the air, and then my dad called me: ‘Would you fight the Madrimovs?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I would. It’s a great fight.’ The reason I said that is because he is a tough fighter.
“I am a very competitive person. It motivates me in the camps when I know I have a tough fight ahead of me. It keeps me focused. I know there’s a lot of it (against Madrimov), but I like it. It gets the adrenaline pumping,” Vergil Jr. said.
This will be Vergil’s second good opponent in his career, and it will be interesting to see how well he plays. ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov can punch with either hand and has excellent boxing skills. Again, he doesn’t have high performance, and his durability is poor. He gassed against Crawford in the championship rounds.
Ennis Ducks?
“Can we talk about Boots for a moment as there has been a bit of an argument between you two,” said Gareth A. Davies to Vergil Jr. on what happened when the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis didn’t happen. “It’s a fight we all want to see.” There are 40+ fights between you two. Do you feel that (Ennis) is avoiding you? There are arguments about weight and all that.”
“I don’t think he’s avoiding me.” I think someone on the team is lying,” Ortiz Jr. said of his belief that someone on Ennis’ team is not being honest. “As boxers, we don’t negotiate. We don’t communicate. We have managers for a reason.
“I’m not saying it’s his manager because there are so many people who come into the game. I can’t say who it is because I don’t know who it is. All I know is on our side, we said, ‘Yes.’ I believe it is. It’s a fight that has to happen,” Ortiz Jr. said when asked if he believed he would eventually fight Jaron Ennis.
