Trainer Robert Garcia sounds more interested in the payday that got away than the middleweight division Vergil Ortiz Jr. is considering. Why keep talking down Josh Kelly instead of talking up a fight with Yoenli Hernandez?
“Kelly’s going to take the fight because Kelly could lose to anybody else for a couple hundred thousand. He’ll get maybe a million against Boots,” Robert Garcia told Fight Hub TV in an interview published today.
Those figures are Garcia’s estimates, but the argument reveals his thinking. Garcia dismisses Kelly as an IBF champion cashing out and treats Jaron Ennis pursuing unification as evidence of avoiding Ortiz. Neither interpretation gives much credit to another fighter’s reasons for choosing his next opponent.
The concern about inactivity is legitimate. Garcia explained that waiting for Ennis to face Kelly and then Sebastian Fundora might leave Vergil without a title opportunity for another year. Ortiz should not have to put his career on hold.
Yet Robert’s discussion of middleweight revolved around familiar names from 154. He mentioned Tim Tszyu, Xander Zayas and eventually Ennis joining them. Moving up and waiting for those opponents suggests the priority remains arranging marketable fights, rather than facing established middleweights.
Yoenli would test something different. Staying close lets Ortiz apply pressure, but against the Cuban, it also puts him within reach of a bigger puncher. Vergil had difficult nights against Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov. In my view, Hernandez presents a greater physical threat than either. How effective would Ortiz’s pressure remain without his usual edge in strength?
His absence from Robert’s comments does not prove fear. It does invite the same scrutiny Robert applies to Ennis.
Garcia wants the biggest available fight for his man. Fair enough. But if Vergil’s future is at middleweight, promoting a fight with Hernandez would tell us more about his ambitions there than another complaint about Boots.
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Last Updated on 2026/08/30 at 2:55 PM
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