Michael McKinson Extremely Confident Ahead Of Vergil Ortiz Bout!
On March 19, two unbeaten welterweight contenders clash in a very pivotal fight. Hard-hitting number one ranked WBO contender Vergil Ortiz (18-0, 18KOs) takes on number 3 ranked WBO contender Michael “The Problem” McKinson (21-0, 2KOs).
McKinson is a major underdog heading into this fight. However, that hasn’t affected the confidence and self-belief he has in himself. The boxer from Portsmouth, United Kingdom sat down with iFL TV to discuss the bout with Ortiz and his immediate interest in the fight.
“When the name Vergil Ortiz first come about, I found out probably end of November that my name was in talks to fight him. I was one hundred percent up for it, one hundred percent. I’m in this game to do massive, massive things and not just good things. I’m in this game to be great not just good. Everything I’ve done so far has been good, I want to be great. So, yeah I welcome this challenge.
I know I’ve got a mountain to climb but believe you me, there’s nobody as mentally strong as I am, nobody as confident as I am, you know what I mean. I got the style to cause anyone problems in there as the name says. So yeah, I’m excited.”
MCKINSON BELIEVES HE’S GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE FOR ORTIZ!
“Tell you what, it’s how much of a challenge I’m going to be for Vergil Ortiz. The world’s watching Vergil, the world’s watching Vergil, he’s tipped for amazing things. The public are going to expect him to do a job on me, but you know what, he hasn’t been in the ring with anyone as fresh as I am, as confident as I am. He hasn’t been in the ring with anyone with an O. Do you know what I mean? Okay he’s performed at a higher level than I have, granted. But he’s shown vulnerabilities like he has shown flaws and vulnerabilities, and I haven’t. At a lower level, I haven’t. So, why not? I’ve got all the chance in the world to pull this off. Yeah, like I really do believe I can do it.”
McKinson, is right Ortiz has shown flaws and vulnerabilities, though that speaks to the quality of his competition. In his last fight against former world title challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas, he was severely hurt by an uppercut on the inside in the first round, and again in the third round, before ultimately winning the bout by ninth round stoppage. He would drop Kavaliauskas five times. As for McKinson, his quality of competition pales in comparison, something he acknowledged. However, that hasn’t stopped him from feeling like he’ll be all kinds of problems for Ortiz.
It’ll be interesting to see if The Problem can cause issues for a man tapped as a future world champion. If he can pull off the upset, it would be huge.
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By: Jerrell Fletcher
