Of course Vergil Ortiz Jnr would like to be fighting for a title, but in building this reputation as boxing’s most avoided fighter, the 27-year-old Texan sees nothing wrong with moving on from the reluctant titleholders and fighting his third consecutive top-five-ranked opponent in the sport’s deepest division.
“It’s kind of amusing in a way,” WBC interim 154lbs belt holder Ortiz, 23-0 (21 KOs), told BoxingScene hours after his November 8 bout against IBF No. 1 contender Erickson Lubin, 27-2 (19 KOs), was formally announced to occur at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on DAZN.
“People are trying to continue this narrative that I’m ducking, but when we send the contracts, they aren’t getting signed. So we continue to look for opposition that is credible. We really just want the best fights. That’s what I’m all about and that’s what we’ll continue to do, whether people want to fight or not.”
Ortiz most recently went in negotiating circles with new WBO champion Xander Zayas, 22, of Puerto Rico, who failed to produce or formally respond to a contract offer after Ortiz promoter Oscar De La Hoya proposed a DAZN pay-per-view in Las Vegas.
That followed failed talks with former unified welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who moved up to the stacked junior-middleweight division and then selected a nondescript opponent in Uisma Lima for October 11.
Before that, an effort to stage an IBF title fight with champion Bakhram Murtazaliev was undone by Ortiz’s reluctance to accept the IBF stipulation for a next-day weigh-in with a 10-pound rehydration limit.
Ortiz fell ill and withdrew trying to cut weight against former welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis more than three years ago, and is resistant to tempting fate again.
“I’m pretty big. Whenever I meet someone, they say, ‘I can’t believe you’re that big,’” Ortiz said. “I don’t believe a rule like [the IBF’s] is on my side. It’s a recipe for disaster. Every edge you have of winning you want to keep. Get that rule taken off and I’ll challenge Bakhram.”
The evasive belts continue an aggravating storyline for Ortiz, who assesses he could have been a three-division champion by now after defeating former 140lbs champion Maurice Hooker of Texas in a welterweight fight.
“People want to say I’m a 27-year-old prospect, but I’m not getting my opportunity yet,” Ortiz lamented. “There was no way I was getting a shot when [Terence] Crawford and [Errol] Spence were tying up the welterweight belts. And at 154, I was No. 1 to [former WBA champion Israil] Madrimov when Crawford skipped the line as an undisputed champion because of some rule.
“And then I beat Madrimov [in February, more convincingly than Crawford did in August 2024]. So luck has just not been on my side. Some people can’t or don’t want to understand that. But if it was up to me, I could’ve been a three-division champion already.”
Regarding the elite competition at 154lbs, Ortiz said, “We sent [‘Boots’] two contracts. He didn’t take the fights. Zayas, he can talk all the shit he wants. They didn’t send a contract back. There’s something going on.
“He did all his talking on social media, but he wouldn’t do it behind closed doors. That’s usually not the kind of guy I am, calling guys out on social media. But something was going on, and I felt I had to ask, ‘What’s up?’”
After all that, Lubin remained, and when De La Hoya offered him more than double than what was on the table for IBF mandatory challenger Lubin to fight Murtazaliev, the Florida fighter chose to fight Ortiz.
Lubin, 29, is a product of ProBoxTV and its owner-promoter, Garry Jonas, who maintains a philosophy of embracing fighters who won’t shy from 50-50 bouts or those even more adverse than that.
A former 154lbs title challenger whose lone losses are to former undisputed champion Jermell Charlo and current WBC 154lbs champion Sebastian Fundora, Lubin offers the nickname “Hammer,” a southpaw stance and power punching assets following victories over Premier Boxing Champions elite 154lbs challenger Jesus Ramos and IBF eliminator foe Ardreal Holmes.
“I have immense respect for [Lubin]. He’s always taken the hard fights – [Jermell] Charlo when he was young, Fundora, other guys too,” Ortiz said. “We know he’s a game fighter. We’re going to be ready for this one. He’s seasoned, experienced, a slick fighter, southpaw. Go in there and do what I do … when I have adjustments that need to be made, I’ll make them. I just have the will to win. I have a very good team behind me. Support from everywhere.”
Sometimes, that support for a hometown fighter – Ortiz resides in Grand Prairie, Texas, a half-hour drive from Fort Worth – can be distracting because of ticket requests. But Ortiz is cornered by 2024 trainer of the year Robert Garcia in Southern California and said he makes it a fight-week ritual to turn his phone off.
He said he’s too intent on winning convincingly to consider letting his foot off the gas in a bout to fight in a flawed, vulnerable manner that would encourage a champion to select him as a challenger.
“I see the logic in it, for sure,” Ortiz said. “The people who get the title shots are the ones with the losses.”
He’s instead resolved to perform at his best, and trust that the process will reward him with that long-awaited title shot.
“I just hope I can get in the ring with the best available. Just get me the best fights to make the best boxing matches people can watch 50 years from now and really see and learn something,” Ortiz said. “I want to look back at it when I’m 50 or 60, and say, ‘Those were the days … .’”
