In victory over Erickson Lubin, Vergil Ortiz Jnr produced the nature of performance that showed that he’s capable of being as destructive at junior middleweight as he was at welterweight.
During his previous two fights, against Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov, he showed he was capable of winning a drawn-out war after being knocked down, and of winning a high-level boxing match. Against Lubin, we saw the same fighter we’d become excited about before he moved up from 147lbs.
His trainer Robert Garcia had been wary of Lubin’s power and experience, and drilled him to move his head when he was working his way inside. Ortiz Jnr later said that he knew that he could pursue the finish earlier, but resisted until the moment the stoppage came because he wanted to remain defensively sound, which in turn reflected his increasing maturity.
Lubin, albeit ineffectively, attempted to slow the pace of the fight, but at the end of the first round Ortiz Jnr threw a straight right hand to the pit of the stomach – one that can be so effective against southpaws like Lubin – that hurt Lubin. Ortiz Jnr knew that he was hurt, and then followed up with a left hook to the liver and a right hook to the other side – his body work was masterful.
Lubin’s strength and counter-punching abilities had the potential to pose a threat when Ortiz Jnr resumed attacking him, so Ortiz Jnr focused on creating the opening to throw the right hook around Lubin’s southpaw guard by pulling his hand down and then targeting the temple. He then showed his killer instinct by throwing left hooks with intent to finish him off – which of course he did before the end of the second round.
There will be those who believe that beating Lubin like that was even more impressive than the way he beat Madrimov – the win I consider his most impressive – but none will dismiss the statement he made. He regardless showed that he’s capable of becoming one of the biggest figures in the sport – something he can do even more quickly if a fight with Jaron “Boots” Ennis happens in the coming year. I’d already considered him the world’s leading junior middleweight; beating Lubin just enhanced that.
I fully believe that both fighters and their trainers – Derek “Bozy” Ennis trains his son – want the fight to happen. But I don’t share the same confidence in their promoters – Golden Boy Promotions guide Ortiz Jnr, and Matchroom promote Ennis.
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn is a maker of deals – his ego won’t necessarily get in the way of agreeing to what his fighters want. Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya has a fighter’s ego – he will draw lines in the sand and fight and potentially prevent a deal being made. There nonetheless remains hope, because even then Turki Alalshikh is capable of paying enough to fund this fight if that’s what he wants to do.
Ortiz Jnr-Ennis, or Ennis-Ortiz Jnr, is, without question, the biggest and best fight that can be made in American boxing. Globally, perhaps only Naoya Inoue-Junto Nakatani is bigger.
It’s become disappointingly rare for us to see fighters matched at their physical peaks, as would apply to Ortiz Jnr and Ennis in 2026. Younger fighters fight harder – they’re fearless and they think they’re invincible. Think “Sugar” Ray Leonard-Wilfried Benitez, and the first fight between Leonard and Tommy Hearns.
What it sounds like we can be far more confident about is Bakhram Murtazaliev and Josh Kelly contesting the IBF title, and a WBO and WBA unification title fight between Xander Zayas and Abass Baraou. Murtazaliev may even have the ability to beat Ortiz Jnr and Ennis – he’s in his prime and we need to see more of him. Kelly is an athletic, slick fighter – I’m intrigued about how Murtazaliev fares against someone with that style.
I also admire Baraou – a particularly tough fighter – but his profile in the US, the home of the 154lbs division, is such that he has little choice but to attempt to unify in his first date as WBA champion. Zayas, with his Puerto Rican following, has the size of profile he and Murtazaliev lack, which makes fighting him a smart move for Baraou. Baraou is also a more beatable opponent than the other champions – Murtazaliev and Sebastian Fundora. The division’s reaching a point where Fundora defending the WBC title against Keith Thurman is threatening to be a waste of time.
A fight between Ortiz Jnr and Ennis is so good it doesn’t require a title, but the fact that they don’t is partly why I don’t have confidence that it’ll happen anytime soon. Their weight division is so strong that both of them could lose before they’re matched – if this opportunity is passed up, it’s the US fight scene that will suffer most of all.
American boxing is the most stagnant it’s been in my lifetime. It needs a fight between Ortiz Jnr and Ennis – one capable of determining the new “face” of the sport, and with the potential to be transformative not just in the US but around the world.
*
It has been confirmed that Ramon Cardenas will return to the ring on December 19, against Erik Robles. I knew in the process of him beating Bryan Acosta that he was on the eve of something big. That something big turned out to be the fight in May with Naoya Inoue, who he knocked down and almost stopped in an incredibly exciting fight in which he showed heart, skill and power. I hope that he can build on that momentum by ending 2025 on a win to set up a big 2026.
