Boxing
Vergil Ortiz Jr. sends a stern message to Terence Crawford and the rest of super welterweight division
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Blood trickling down his left cheek following a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Israil Madrimov, Vergil Ortiz Jr. made sure to put Terence Crawford and the rest of the super welterweight world champions on further notice that he wants all the smoke.
After judges at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and live on DAZN, scored it 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113 in his favor Saturday night, the interim WBA 154-pound champion let it be known that he’ll never duck a challenge.
“We just want to show that we’re the best at 154 and we say yes to everybody,” Ortiz, who improved to 23-0 (21 knockouts), told DAZN’s Chris Mannix inside the ring.
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He tacked on for good measure: “I just want to fight the best. Everyone who [His Excellency] Turki [Alalshikh] gives me, I say yes. You can ask him yourself, I’ve never ducked anybody, no matter what anybody says.”
When Ortiz says he’s “the best at 154” it is in opposition to popular thought which has WBA super welterweight world champion Crawford as the class of the division and arguably the pound-for-pound best boxer in the sport today.
Sebastian Fundora is the unified WBC/WBO super welterweight world champion, while Bakhram Murtazaliev is the IBF titleholder of the division.
That said, on Saturday night, the 26-year-old Ortiz furthered his case for a bigger fight, considering he handed Madrimov a unanimous decision defeat, powered by a relentless attack to the body.
Prior to that, Madrimov had a solid showing against Crawford in an August 2024 fight which “Bud” won by unanimous decision.
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