WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr says he wants a title shot against any of the three champions at 154 that will give him the opportunity following his 12-round unanimous decision win over Israil Madrimov last Saturday night at The Venue in Riyadh.
Potential Foes
– Bakhram Murtazaliev: IBF
– Sebastian Fundora: WBC and WBO
– Terence Crawford: WBA
The easiest of those three is Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs), but he’s also the most dangerous puncher. Ortiz Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) would have to change his approach against him because he couldn’t just go straight at Murtazaliev like he did against Madrimov (10-2-1, 7 KOs). He hits too hard for Vergil to out-brawl him, and he won’t run as Madrimov did.
Ortiz Jr. had trouble enough as it was against Madrimov, but it would be worse against Bakhram. Vergil defeated Madrimov by the scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 117-111.
“If someone is going to give me a chance to fight for a belt, let’s go for it,” said Vergil Jr to Ring Magazine.
“We just fought a good fight against a great opponent. I’m very happy with my performance,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to The Stomping Ground after his win over Israil Madrimov last Saturday night. “What he gave us, that’s what we thought was going to happen.
“He has good power, but it’s not scary,” said Ortiz Jr. when asked if Madrimov has good power. “Mean Machine [Egidijus Kavaliauskas] was scary power. I’ll tell you that I don’t like getting hit by him. There hasn’t been another fighter that I’m like, ‘Let me watch out.’ Him [Madrimov] was just like, ‘Okay, I can take this.’” said Ortiz Jr.
Vergil Jr’s face was a lot more badly marked up against Madrimov than it was in his fight against Kavaliauskas. So, that tells you that his perception of Madrimov’s power was off because he was catching him with some big shots that looked more powerful than the ones he was hit with against ‘Mean Machine in their fight on August 14, 2021.
Ortiz Jr. needs to give up on his hopes of fighting Terence Crawford because he’s not going to help him out by offering a title shot. Crawford is fighting WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. After that fight, he’ll likely retire unless Turki Alalshikh offers him a ton of money to fight someone like newly crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
“It really wasn’t frustrating because eventually, he’s going to have to fight,” said Vergil Jr. when asked if he was frustrated by the movement of Madrimov. “I can fight from the outside, too. It’s not like I’m just a fighter that [plods forward]. I can be that fighter if I want to bully you if he’s not giving me anything and he’s not dishing out anything.
“I have a good jab, and I can fight from the outside too. Fighting someone that is moving a lot is not a problem for me,” said Ortiz Jr.
Last Updated on 02/24/2025