By Brian Webber: Vergil Ortiz Jr (19-0, 19 KOs) earned himself a title shot with his ninth round stoppage win over Michael McKinson (22-1, 2 KOs) in a WBA 147-lb title eliminator on Saturday night, but he doesn’t look ready for the likes of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Given that performance by Ortiz, his promoters at Golden Boy would do well to have him get more seasoning before he goes after one of the belts at welterweight.
Ortiz, 24, did what he had to do in tracking down and stopping British fighter McKinson on Saturday night at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The fight was far from an easy one for Ortiz, as he swung & missed McKinson repeatedly until finally catching him with a left to the body to put him down in the eighth.
It could have been a real dicy situation for Ortiz if McKinson had any punching power.
“I don’t think he annihilated him, but he took care of business and found a way to break him down,” said Sergio Mora to All Access Elite Boxing about Vergil Ortiz Jr’s win over Michael McKinson on Saturday night.
“McKinson was scrappy. We knew it was going to be tough. Both of them are undefeated; both of them didn’t want to lose, but Vergil Ortiz forced him to submit. He found a way to do that, and that was the body.
“He was a slippery southpaw, and he couldn’t catch him with shots upstairs. He found a home down there. Once he got touched down to the liver, it’s going to take rounds to recover, and obviously, he didn’t have that on his side,” Mora said about McKinson.
“You’ve got to give all the credit to McKinson. He fights winners, and fights them in their hometown and he beats them. He wasn’t able to do that tonight, but he showed a valiant effort.
“He wasn’t going to win rounds because you can’t compete with the power and the pressure of Vergil Ortiz. He said he was going to do everything he could to win, and I think we saw that. It’s just that he was out-matched by power.
“The money is going to be there. I say no to Bud Crawford,” said Mora about his desire for Vergil Jr not to fight Terence Crawford now. “Ortiz just turned 24. There’s a lot of time to mature.”
