By Dan Ambrose: Vergil Ortiz Jr will be making his debut at 154 on January 6th against a 147-pound fighter, Fredrick Lawson, in a twelve round main event fight on DAZN at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.
Golden Boy obviously wasn’t going to risk putting Ortiz Jr. in with a quality fighter after a year and a half of inactivity since his last fight against August 2022.
With that said, is it asking too much to have Ortiz Jr fight a junior middleweight? If you’re going to fight at 154, why on earth are you fighting an old welterweight like Lawson? It does not compute!
What’s the point of facing a 147-pounder if you’re now campaigning at 154? By Ortiz Jr fighting a welterweight, he’s delaying the inevitable. If he’s too big to make 154 without draining himself to the point where he gets that health condition again, he needs to move up – again.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. was supposed to challenge WBA secondary welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis last July, but he reportedly fainted while trying to make weight.
Ortiz hasn’t fought since August of last year, as he’s missed a lot of time with COVID and a muscle tissue problem. He had a long case of COVID and knows how that’ll affect him long term.
Hopefully, Ortiz Jr. doesn’t drain himself to the point where he passes out or has another reoccurrence of Rhabdomyolysis while getting down in weight for the contest.
Boxing fans are waiting for Ortiz Jr. to pull out because many of them question whether he’s physically cut out to be an athlete due to his health problems.
If Ortiz can’t make the 154-lb limit, he needs to move up to 160 or 168 because the seven-lb cushion that he has in moving up from 147 might not be enough.
Ortiz has basically been a junior middleweight melting down to welterweight for years, so at this point, he should at least be fighting someone from the 154-lb division instead of an aging 147-pounder with three losses against lesser opposition.
Lawson’s three defeats:
Kevin Bizier
Juan Ruiz
Charles Hatley
“He’s got the heart and dedication and is on a mission to be a world title holder,” said Oscar De La Hoya about Ortiz. “I know he will make a statement in this new division against Fredrick Lawson. Golden Boy will be starting 2024 with a bang, and we’re proud to have Vergil launch our action-packed boxing schedule for the year.”
Vergil Ortiz Jr’s best wins have come against Maurice Hooker, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Michael McKinson, Samuel Vargas and Mauricio Herrera. The fight with ‘Mean Machine’ Kavaliauskas was a close call for Vergil Jr, as he was staggered badly and close to being knocked out.
