Vergil Ortiz Thinks He Can Take Errol Spence Jr
There should be no surprise that the thunderous-punching, up and coming welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr (15-0, 15 KO’s) believes that he can bludgeon anyone in the division. Naturally, that list of would-be victims obviously includes WBC and IBF world welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr (26-0, 21 KO’s) as well.
While the two have not gone for one another’s neck, they have traded words in social media. Although, it should be noted that these exchanges were never crude or lacking in general respect.
HONEST ASSESSMENT
In the end though, boxing is a combat sport. So, as long as they reside in the same division and Ortiz Jr continues to climb the ranks, there is a chance this fight could be made. Right now, the soft-spoken knockout artist is ranked #2 WBO and #8 WBC, which technically already has him in striking distance of WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KO’s).
So when recently questioned by Cory Lee Boxingon how a prizefight between himself and Spence Jr would play out, Ortiz Jr gave an almost surprisingly honest answer.
“I think a fight with me and Errol would be a really good action-packed fight; we did come from the same gym. Everyone always like compares both of us, a lot of people don’t even realize that we came out of the same gym. I think that people really count me out because they don’t think I am big enough.”
“But what people don’t realize is I am the same height as him, if not taller. I’m not exactly like buff as shit or whatever, but I’m still pretty strong. Honestly, I just think it’d be a good fight. I don’t think that the fight goes the distance.”
“…honestly we’re not going to be happy with no freaking decision, we’re going to leave it all out there…hopefully he gets stopped! I’m going to try my best not to get stopped!”
ARE THE EYES BIGGER THAN THE STOMACH?
As stated earlier, the personal and potential competitive relationship between the two Junior’s has never been acidic. Perhaps this is why Ortiz was a bit too candid when reminiscing on his most memorable sparring session. In his reverie, he told about the time in 2018 when four-division champion Mikey Garcia (40-1, 30 KO’s) made easy work of him.
Even though triangle theories as are useless as hole-filled parachutes, Spence Jr later beat Mikey Garcia around the four boxing turnbuckles for twelve complete rounds. This was only a year, if not months, after Ortiz Jr himself said that Garcia played with him in sparring. That is not good, especially if he is talking about being able to knock off The Truth in the present day.
“When I sparred him the first time [Mikey Garcia] , I’m not going to lie, this was like in 2018; this was only two years ago! He completely broke me down, like so easily. And like, I was just surprised. At that time, I’m just like, ‘man, no one can make me look like an amateur or whatever’, but bro he did exactly that!”
“And I swear to God, like after a few sparrings with him, I felt like a completely different fighter. He’s taught me so much.”
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
Furthermore, it’s a terrible look for Ortiz Jr to say that he was still green as the back of Oscar the Grouch’s head in 2018. The reason being, it was in 2017 that Spence Jr traveled to the UK and took Kell Brook’s IBF world title after breaking his face and stopping him in the eleventh round.
So by his own stories, Ortiz gives the impression that by all logical measurements, The Truth is probably still far more advanced. Yet, at the end of the day, that’s why they fight the fights! At the moment, Spence and Ortiz are on no collision course, so let’s see how their careers play out. Who knows, they could be squaring off before anyone expects.
By: Bakari Simpson
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