Ortiz Jr. Vs Madrimov: Can ‘Little GGG’ Expose The Hype?

Interim WBC junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he immediately agreed to fight Israil Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis opted not to fight him on the Feb. 22 card in Riyadh.

Vergil Jr. he doesn’t have to be involved in another controversial decision going his way because he felt bad about winning a controversial decision in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk. If you get too many, it will limit your star power.

Low production concerns

Madrimov has the skills and power to make this a tough fight for Ortiz Jr., but he doesn’t throw many punches, which should give Vergil Jr. an important advantage. It’s much busier.

In Madrimov’s loss to Terence Crawford, he didn’t pitch enough in the championship rounds and was out of a job. It was a winnable fight, but he let Crawford get the better of him despite having less power, size and youth. Terence just wanted it more. Vergil Jr. and his team probably saw Madrimov’s low production, which may be one of the reasons they agreed to fight him. It can be overloaded.

Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) claims it “motivates” him in training camp when he’s preparing to fight a good opponent. However, he has only fought one good opponent in his nine-year career, beating interim WBC 154lb champion Bohachuk by a questionable 12-round majority decision on August 10 of last year in las vegas

Vergil was taken down twice by Bohachuk, hitting the deck in the first and eighth. He protested the first fall, saying it was a slip, but replays showed it was a fall.

Many boxing fans had Vergil losing, and felt he had a decision over the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. received a lot of criticism from people when he chose not to give Bohachuk a rematch to clear up the controversy. Turki Al-Sheikh could have insisted that he fight, and Vergil Jr. probably would have. That never happened, so now Vergil moves on followed by a dark cloud.

Aside from Bohachuk, Vergil’s only other notable win on his resume was against Egidijus
Kavaliauskas. He was staggered early in the fight but somehow survived to score a knockout in the eighth round.

Can Madrimov win?

“It’s a great fight on paper. He just had a great fight against Crawford. He did very well. Even though he lost, that’s not the kind of performance you can be ashamed of. He did great,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. a talkSport Boxing on Israil Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.

“We were going to fight ‘Boots’ and the fight fell through. So, I was thinking, ‘Am I still fighting for the card?’ It was kind of up in the air, and then I got a call from my dad: “Would you fight Madrimov?” I’m like, ‘Yes, I would. It’s a great fight.’ The reason I said yes is because he is a tough fighter.

“I am a very competitive person. It motivates me in the training camps when I know I have a tough fight ahead of me. It keeps me focused. I know there’s a lot at stake (against Madrimov), but I like it. It gets the adrenaline going,” Vergil Jr. said.

This will be Vergil’s second good matchup in his career, and it will be interesting to see how well he performs. ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov can punch with either hand and has excellent boxing skills. Again, it doesn’t have high performance, and its endurance is on the poor side. He gassed up against Crawford in the championship rounds.

Ennis Ducks?

“Can we talk about Boots for a second because there was a bit of an argument between the two of them,” Gareth A. Davies told Vergil Jr. about what happened with the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis that didn’t happen. “It’s a fight we all want to see. There are 40 fights between the two of you. Do you think (Ennis) is avoiding you? There are arguments about weight and all that.”

“I don’t think he’s avoiding me. I think there’s somebody on the team who’s lying,” Ortiz Jr. said. about his belief that someone on Ennis’ team is not being honest. “We as boxers, we’re not the ones negotiating. We’re not communicating. We have managers for a reason.

“I’m not saying I’m their coach because there are a lot of people who come into play. 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 think so. It’s a fight that has to happen,” Ortiz Jr. said when asked if he thinks he will eventually fight Jaron Ennis.