Vergil Ortiz Jr. (21-0, 21 KOs) says he can’t afford to overlook his next opponent, WBC interim junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs) for their fight on August 10th.
Ortiz Jr, 26, wants to reschedule a fight against former WBO 154-lb champion Tim Tszyu. The two were supposed to square off on the August 3rd Riyadh Season event at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. However, Tszyu couldn’t fight on that date because his cut was not fully healed from his recent match against Sebastian ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora on March 30th.
You’ve got to question Vergil Ortiz Jr’s ambition for wanting to fight against Tszyu next rather than aiming for the top of the tree to challenge for the full WBC 154-lb belt against Fundora. Is it a confidence problem with Vergil, or does he lack ambition? I think it could be a bit of both.
Vergil is aware that Bohachuk has too much talent for him to look past this guy because there’s a good chance he could lose to him.
Golden Boy Promotions, Ortiz’s handlers, have never matched him against anyone near Bohachuk’s ability during his eight-year professional career. They’ve kept Vergil Jr. safe, matching him against the right type of opposition to ensure he didn’t lose.
The closest thing Vergil has come to fighting a world-class opponent is Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and he was badly hurt in that fight on August 14, 2021. Since that fight, Vergil Jr. has fought just three times, beating these second-tier opponents: Thomas Dulorme, Fredrick Lawson and Michael McKinson
“Not looking past this hard a** fight I’ve got in front of me. If it still happens, it’s going to happen,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to Fight Hub TV about him not overlooking his risky clash against WBC interim junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk on August 10th towards his desired match against Tim Tszyu.
If Ortiz Jr. is victorious against Bohachuk on August 10th, a better fight for him would be to target the match winner between WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora and Errol Spence Jr. That would be a bigger prize for Vergil Jr. than fighting the non-belt holder Tszyu, who is still reeling from losing to Fundora.
“We were going to take the Tim [Tszyu] fight even after he lost because we know it’s a good fight. Just because he lost it doesn’t take away from him as a fighter,” said Vergil.
“If I lose this one, not saying I am, but God forbid it does happen, that fight with Tim is still going to happen,” said Ortiz.
Vergil should forget about fighting Tszyu, and focus on the bigger target by going after the Fundora vs. Spence winner. The winner of the Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov is also an excellent option for Vergil. Again, it comes down to how much confidence and ambition he has.
