Michael McKinson (21-0, 2 KOs) is taking the dangerous unbeaten #1 WBC & WBO ranked welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (18-0, 18 KOs) for the main event on DAZN in early 2022.
McKinson, 26, is doing what Conor Benn wouldn’t do in facing the highly rated KO artist Vergil. It’s a considerable risk for McKinson, but even if he loses, it just shows what the guy is made of in taking on this level of a fighter. Now, if only Conor Benn would do the same.
McKinson’s lack of power is going to make it challenging to keep Ortiz off of him, but he’ll likely use a lot of movement to keep him from landing his big shots.
Ortiz is accustomed to his opponents standing in front of him so that he can load up on his punches, but he won’t be able to do that against McKinson.
ESPN is reporting that the 23-year-old Golden Boy promoted Vergil Ortiz Jr., and McKinson have agreed to a deal to headline live on DAZN for the first quarter of 2022.
McKinson is a southpaw, which explains a lot for why Golden Boy promotions have selected him as the next opponent for Ortiz to get him ready for an eventual title shot against IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. or WBO champ Terence Crawford. Both guys are southpaws.
On the downside, it’s highly questionable whether Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Michael McKinson will attract a lot of interest from casual boxing fans in the U.S because most if not all of them will likely have never heard of the British fighter.
As such, unless Golden Boy and DAZN put on a significant promotion for this fight, it’s going to fly under the radar with fans.
McKinson has faced obscure opposition throughout his seven-year professional career, which began in 2014. It’s going to be a significant leap up in competition for McKinson to go from fighting European level to a world level operator like Vergil, but you never know.
Ortiz is so accustomed to fighting high-caliber guys with professional styles. He might not be know how to react fighting someone like McKinsoon, who he’ll undoubtedly need to chase around to a certain extent.
In McKinson’s last fight, he defeated Przemyslaw Runowski by a 10 round unanimous decision. With a 9.52% KO percentage, it’s not surprising that McKinson had to go the full 10 round distance to defeat Runowski.
It would have been a surprise if he’d knocked him out because he has very little pop in his punches.
McKinson’s last eight opponents:
Przemyslaw Runowski
Sources: Vergil Ortiz Jr., ESPN’s No. 4 welterweight, and undefeated boxer Michael McKinson have agreed to a deal for a fight that will headline Golden Boy Boxing on DAZN in early 2022. Full story coming to ESPN.
Why is ortiz fighting a nobody? Why won’t he fight Ennis? I want Ortiz too at least call out conner benn an knock him out shut his big mouth up since he’s talking so much crap him and eddie hearn callin out a washed up broner or brook an knan are you freaking kidding me.