Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Serhii Bohachuk is reportedly being finalized for August 10th in Las Vegas. Ortiz Jr. (21-0, 21 KOs) will challenge Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs) for his WBC interim junior Middleweight title in a big step-up fight for the Golden Boy-promoted fighter.
Bohachuk is a better fighter than Vergil Ortiz Jr’s originally planned foe, former WBO junior middleweight Tim Tszyu, and he’s a real threat to his undefeated record.
The 26-year-old Ortiz has only fought three times since moving up to 154 last year, and he’s never fought anyone remotely as talented as Bohachuk during his eight-year pro career.
Bohachuk captured the WBC interim junior middleweight title with a twelve-round unanimous decision win over champion Brian Mendoza on March 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mendoza had given Tim Tszyu and Sebastian Fundora massive problems in his two previous fights.
For Vergil Ortiz to win this fight, he will need to figure out how to slow down Bohachuk’s high-volume offense. He is not capable of matching the Ukrainian fighter’s high output or technical game.
Ortiz isn’t built to throw a lot of punches the watch Bohachuk does, and his technical game hasn’t been developed. Vergil has been getting by with his power, which has been more than enough to beat the level of opposition his promoters at Golden Boy have been feeding him.
Vergil’s last six opponents:
– Thomas Dulorme
– Fredrick Lawson
– Michael McKinson
– Egidijus Kavaliauskas
– Maurice Hooker
– Samuel Vargas
The opposition that Ortiz has been facing are not on the level of Bohachuk, and that’s what makes this fight difficult to predict because there’s no step up level opponent on Vergil’s resume that he would need to gauge him.
It’s not ideal for Ortiz to go from beating Dulorme and Lawson at 154 to taking on a talented champion like Bohachuk, arguably better than the current WBC champ, Sebastian Fundora.
Bohachuk’s best career wins have a come against Mendoza, Patrick Allotey, Nathaniel Gallimore and Tyrone Brunson.
The difference between Bohachuk and Vergil is that Serhii had an excellent amateur background in Ukraine before turning pro in 2017, and that gives him a huge advantage in experience against quality fighters.