Ortiz Jr. Wants Ennis & Murtazaliev: Is He Crazy After Almost Losing to an Ill Madrimov?

Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he spoke to Turki Alalshikh about his desire to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Ortiz Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) is going to have to raise his game many levels for him to have a chance of beating Boots Ennis and IBF junior middleweight champion Murtazaliev. Those two are better fighters than Vergil Jr’s last two opponents, Israil Madrimov and Serhii Bohachuk.

Madrimov Mess: What Happened?

Many fans had  Ortiz Jr. losing to Bohachuk last August, and he came close to getting beaten by Madrimov in his last fight in February. What a lot of people don’t know is that Madrimov was reportedly ill leading up to his fight with Vergil Jr, and he STILL came close to beating him. He lost a narrow 12-round decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 117-111.

It doesn’t take a genius to determine that Ortiz Jr. would have lost to Madrimov if the former WBA 154-lb champion was healthy for their clash last February in Riyadh. The point I’m making is that if Vergil Jr. barely beat an ill Madrimov and was arguably beaten by Bohachuk, how can he expect to be competitive with Ennis and Muratazaliev?

Ennis, Murtazaliev: Next for Ortiz?

“I think the Boots fight is the fight that has to happen. The Bakhram fight, I am not sure when it will happen, but hopefully, pretty soon. Those are great fights the fans want to see, and so do I,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to BoxingScene about wanting to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and IBF 154-lb champion Bakhram Murtazaliev. “I have told Turki [Alalshikh] I want both of those fights.”

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Ortiz Jr. supposedly spoke to Turki about wanting to fight Bakhram and Boots Ennis. It’s hard to believe that Vergil Jr. would want to put his unbeaten record at risk against those fighters after the hard time he had against an ill Madrimov and Bohachuk. Ortiz Jr. has a good thing going right now with his unbeaten record. Why would he want to risk it against two fighters that would surely beat him?