Jamaine Ortiz wants to prove himself against Shakur Stevenson.

The lightweight contender isn’t certain, though, that the timing would be right for him to face Stevenson on November 16. Stevenson still needs an opponent for that date because another unbeaten southpaw, Frank Martin, ultimately decided that he didn’t want to fight Stevenson that night soon after their promoters reached an agreement September 5.

Ortiz (16-1-1, 8 KOs), of Worcester, Massachusetts, is scheduled to meet Mexican veteran Antonio Moran (29-5-1, 20 KOs) in a 10-round junior welterweight bout Friday night in Corpus Christi, Texas. If the favored Ortiz wins, the nature of his victory over Moran will determine whether he would accept an offer to face Stevenson next for the WBC lightweight title.

The 27-year-old Ortiz acknowledged during an interview with BoxingScene.com that he would prefer more time between bouts if he were to fight Stevenson next.

“I would like it to be pushed back a little bit,” Ortiz said. “You know, I would like to have my little time to reset. … I would like to take my time and maybe push it further back out, towards the end of December, early January.”

Unfortunately for Ortiz, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which promotes Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) and co-promotes Ortiz, only has two open dates available on ESPN’s linear channel for the remainder of 2023.

Top Rank has set aside November 16 for Stevenson’s next fight. Its second open date is December 9, the night of its annual show following the network’s Heisman Trophy presentation.

Well aware that the opportunity to fight Stevenson would be huge, Ortiz isn’t completely opposed to the quick turnaround.

“We’ll see how I feel,” Ortiz said. “If I get a quick knockout, then yeah. But I’ve gotta take care of my health first, you know? And if I have a tough fight and I’m all bruised up, I definitely need time to recover. My main [thing] is to win [against Stevenson]. I’m not just going in there to fight Shakur for a check or whatever. I’m coming out to win, and for me to win I know I have to be in a great [mental] space and physically be good, not coming back off another injury or too quick of a turnaround.”

Negotiations are ongoing between Top Rank and representatives for Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs), but BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Top Rank is considering other opponents for Stevenson’s return to the ring as well.

Ortiz was supposed to face Mexico’s Humberto Galindo (14-3-1, 11 KOs) on the Teofimo Lopez-Josh Taylor undercard June 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

He withdrew the day before they were scheduled to weigh in because Ortiz couldn’t get down to the contracted weight of 136 pounds. Ortiz told BoxingScene.com that a back injury mostly prohibited him from making weight three months ago.

The contract weight for the Ortiz-Moran match is 138 pounds, but Ortiz is confident that he can still get down to the lightweight limit of 135 pounds for a fight with Stevenson or another top lightweight.

Ortiz hasn’t boxed since he gave three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) a more difficult fight than anticipated in their 12-rounder last October 29. In his previous appearance, Ortiz outboxed former WBO junior lightweight champ Jamel Herring (23-4, 11 KOs) and won their 10-rounder by unanimous decision in May 2022.

ESPN+ will stream Ortiz’s fight with Moran as part of the Luis Alberto Lopez-Joet Gonzalez undercard at American Bank Center. Lopez-Gonzalez undercard coverage is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. EDT.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.