Ortiz Jr Vs Madrymov: Can “Little GGG” Live Up To The Hype?
WBC interim junior middleweight champion Virgil Ortiz Jr has announced that he has immediately agreed to fight Israel Madrimov after Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis opted not to fight him on the February 22 card in Riyadh.
Vergil Jr. Getting a controversial decision in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk looked bad, so he shouldn’t be involved in another controversial decision. If he gets too many of these, he will limit his star power.
Low output stress
Madrymov has the skill and power to make this a tough fight for Ortiz Jr., but he doesn’t throw many punches, which should give Virgil Jr. a big advantage. He is very busy.
Madrymov didn’t throw enough in the championship rounds in his loss to Terence Crawford and was out of action. It was a winnable fight, but despite his power, size and youth, Crawford let it work. Terence wanted more. Virgil Jr. and his team likely saw Madrymov’s low results, which may be one of the reasons they agreed to fight him. He might be out of a job.
Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) says he’s “pushing it” in training camp as he prepares to fight a good opponent. However, he has only fought one good opponent in his nine-year career, defeating WBC interim 154-lb champion Bohachuk via a 12-round majority decision last year in Las Vegas on August 10.
Virgil fell twice in Bohachuk, hitting the ship in the first and eighth. He contested the first knock, saying it was a slip, but replays showed he was knocked down.
Many boxing fans felt that Virgil had lost, and was given a decision against the Ukrainian fighter. Ortiz Jr. received a lot of criticism from people when he chose not to give Bohachuk another chance to clear up the controversy. Turki could have insisted that Al-Sheikh fight, and so could Virgil Jr. That never happened, so now Virgil is moving under a dark cloud.
Aside from Bohachuk, Virgil’s only notable victory over Remilysu was against Igidijus.
Kavaliauskas was stumbling early in the fight but somehow survived an eighth-round knockout.
Can Madrymov win?
“It’s a great fight on paper. He just had a great fight against Crawford. He did really well. Even though he lost, it’s not the type of performance you can be ashamed of. He did a great job,” Virgil Ortiz Jr. said. TalkSport boxing Regarding Israel Madrimov’s recent loss to Terence Crawford on August 3rd.
“We were going to fight ‘Boots,’ and the fight broke up. So, ‘Am I still fighting on the card?’ It was good in the air, and then I got a call from my father, ‘Will you fight Madrymov?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do. It’s a great fight.’ The reason I say yes is that he is a tough fighter.
“I’m a very competitive person. It motivates me in training camps when I know I have a tough fight ahead. It gives me my attention. I know there’s a lot on the line (on Madrymov) but I love it. It produces adrenaline,” Vergil Jr. said.
This will be Vergil’s second good opponent of his career, and it will be interesting to see how well he performs. “Little GGG” Madrymov can punch with both hands, and has good boxing skills. Again, he doesn’t have high output, and his strength is on the poor side. He faced Crawford in the championship rounds.
Ennis Dax?
“There was a bit of an argument between you two so we can talk about Boots for a second,” Gareth A. Davies told Virgil Jr. about what happened since the fight between him and Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis didn’t happen. “It’s a fight we all want to see. There are 40-odd conflicts between the two of you. Do you feel he (Ennis) is getting away from you? There are arguments about weight and all that.
“I don’t think he’s going to leave me. “I think there’s somebody on the team that’s lying,” Ortiz Jr. said of his belief that someone on Ennis’ team is not being truthful. “We boxers are not us. We are not dating. We have managers for a reason.
“I’m not saying it’s his manager because there are a lot of people who come to the game. I can’t say who it is because I don’t know who it is. I know from our side, we said ‘yes’. I believe. It’s a fight that has to happen,” Ortiz Jr. said.
