Erickson Lubin Warns Vergil Ortiz Jr.’s ‘Emotional’ Fighting Style Could Finally Backfire on November 8

Erickson Lubin says he’s noticed how Vergil Ortiz Jr. tends to get “emotional” in his fights when he gets hit. He comes immediately, throwing “crazy” shots, trying to get it back.

Next month, it could catch up to Vergil Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) when he defends his WBC interim junior middleweight title against the boxer-puncher Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs) on November 8 at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The event will be shown on DAZN.

The Wild Response

“A more savage mindset. I feel like Vergil gets a little emotional when he fights. You land some punches on him, and he starts shaking his head and biting his lip,” said Erickson Lubin to MillCity Boxing about how Vergil Ortiz Jr. gets emotional after being hit.

Ortiz Jr., 27, isn’t going to change his boxing DNA at this point in his career by staying calm, and keeping his head together after he gets nailed hard. He’s always going to fight like a wild man. If it doesn’t catch up to him against Erickson, it has a good chance of happening when he fights Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

“He wants to get it back. He starts throwing some crazy s*** back at you. They should make this fight for the title, and let Fundora be champion in recess,” said Erickson, reacting to WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora postponing his fight against Keith Thurman due to a hand injury.

Vergil Jr. has always fought with emotion his entire career, and it’s worked for him thus far. It’s also caused him to take a lot of punishment by going straight at his opponents. We saw that in his fights against Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov. Ortiz Jr. looked like he’d come out of a war zone by the end of the fight.

The WBC Title Question

It would make sense for the WBC to make their 154-lb title on the line for the Vergil vs. Lubin fight. However, the sanctioning body should have it at stake for the Fundora-Thurman clash because that’s on Amazon Prime Video PPV. It’s the bigger fight. The WBC would be shooting themselves in the foot by giving Fundora the champion in recess tag.

“I’m leaning toward Fundora. No disrespect to Keith, but a little inactivity. A little older now,” said Lubin.

If you took a close look at Thurman’s last fight, coming off another three-year layoff against Australian Brock Jarvis earlier this year on March 12, he’s not the same fighter.

The only thing he’s got left is to move and throw a rare single shot. His punch output has dropped to almost nothing, and he doesn’t look capable of standing still for a firefight. That approach isn’t going to work against Fundora.

By Sean Jones — Senior Boxing Writer, Covering the Sport Since 2016.