Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 – weigh-in results for Saturday

By Boxing News - 03/18/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Vergil Ortiz Jr weighed in at 147 pounds on Friday at the weigh-in for his 12-round fight on DAZN this Saturday night against Maurice Hooker at the Dickies Arena, in Fort Worth, Texas. Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs) came in at 147 lbs as well and looked great.

Ortiz (16-0, 16 KOs) and Hooker will be fighting for the WBO International welterweight title.

This is a crucial fight for Ortiz and for Golden Boy Promotions because he’s now considered their new flagship fighter with Canelo Alvarez having departed.

Ortiz Jr certainly has the punching power and the exciting fighting style to replace Canelo as Golden Boy’s new star.

In comparing the two, Ortiz is more interesting to watch than Canelo because he puts his punches together, and he doesn’t put as much energy into trying to make his opponents miss.

With Ortiz, you get the drama that’s lacking from watching Canelo’s fights. We haven’t see Ortiz step it up against elite-level fighters, but if he’s able to beat the top fighters, he’s not the type to cherry-pick.

That’s the major criticism that fans have with Canelo. His opponents seem to be well-picked. Hopefully, Vergil doesn’t evolve into that kind of fighter.

Massive pressure on Vergil Ortiz

Although Golden Boy has high hopes for lightweight Ryan Garcia, Ortiz is viewed as being rugged enough to capture world titles and hold onto them. Ryan is seen as too flimsy and weak in the chin department to become a true superstar.

As a result, there’s going to be a lot of eyes on pressure en Vergil Ortiz r this Saturday night to see if he lives up to the huge expectations that his promoters have of him.

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If Ortiz struggles to beat Hooker or if he loses, he won’t be able to progress to the next level.

Should he come out victorious, Vergil, 22, is hoping to get a title shot against WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford, who is expected to be ringside on Saturday.

Ortiz’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya says he’ll make the decision whether to try and put together a fight with Crawford based on how well he performed against former WBO 140-lb champion Hooker.

Crawford could be next

If Ortiz looks impressive in winning, De La Hoya will likely sit down with Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank to start talks for a fight between them.

It’s difficult to know how well Ortiz will do against Hooker because his opposition has been mostly pedestrian level since he turned pro in 2016.

Up until now, Ortiz’s best opponent in his resume is battle-worn Samuel Vargas, a fighter he dispatched in seven rounds last July in Indio, California.

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“The factor that Maurice [Hooker] is going to give him [Ortiz] angles, he’s going to give him speed, the experience,” said Oscar De La Hoya to the Pug and Copp Boxing Show on Saturday’s Ortiz vs. Hooker fight. “The experience that Maurice has.

“He’s been in there with [Jose] Ramirez, for instance, which was a great fight. It’s going to give him the experience, the confidence.

“If he [Vergil Ortiz] can beat a fighter like Hooker on Saturday night, imagine what it does to his confidence level. It elevates him to the championship level where he deserves to be.

“He’s very dedicated,” De La Hoya said about Vergil. “He’s a gym rat, and he stays humble and he stays hungry.

“That’s one of the most important attributes a fighter can have is to stay hungry and stay humble.

“You never hear Vergil say, ‘I should be making this and that.’ When you’re in the championship level of boxing and you take care of business, the money will come,” said De La Hoya.

It almost sounds like De La Hoya talked about Teofimo Lopez when he spoke about the need for fighters to stay “humble” and about how the money will come” when a fighter is at the championship level.

Yeah, hopefully, Vergil doesn’t grab a title and then start forcing weak title defense to purse bid for fights that boxing fans have little interest in seeing. That would be a tragedy.

It’s important that Vergil keeps his feet on the ground and not blabbering about he ‘knows his worth’ all this other nonsense. Beating Hooker is nothing compared to the next step that Ortiz Jr will have in facing the unbeaten Crawford.

That’s where we’ll find out how good Ortiz is because that’s going to be a tough fight, and he may not be ready for that big of a step up in class.

Hooker is a decent fighter, but he’s not the type of preparation that you’d like to see Ortiz take to get ready for a fighter like Crawford. A better test would be Yordenis Ugas or Shawn Porter.

De La Hoya hoping for a late KO for Vergil

“I would love to see a late knockout,” said De La Hoy about his hopes that Vergil Ortiz scores a knockout over Hooker.

“I would like to see Vergil in some type of adversity, and I would love to see him have to change up his game plan.

“And I would like to see him have to figure out Maurice Hooker. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a very calculated difficult fight for him, and for both guys.

“I think Vergil has his hands full. I think Maurice has his hands full obviously, but I would love to see this fight end in the later rounds.

“It all depends on how he looks,” said De La Hoya when asked if he’ll talk about matching Vergil against Terence Crawford on Saturday night.

“I’m sure Maurice Hooker has gotten some great advice from Terence Crawford. They have almost but not quite similar styles,” said De La Hoya about Hooker and Crawford.

“They’re very elusive, they’re slick, they have speed and they can think. He has the experience, Maurice.

“Look, if Vergil beats him with ease and no problems, then it’s something I have to consider for Vergil for his next fight with Crawford,” said De La Hoya.

If Ortiz performs like we’ve been seeing from him lately, he’ll get Hooker out of there by the sixth or seventh rounds.

Hooker is too and skinny for him to hold off a fighter like Ortiz Jr for long if he comes full bore the way Jose Ramirez did against Hooker.

The 31-year-old Hooker is coming off of a long layoff, and we don’t know how that will impact his performance against Ortiz. Hooker last fought in December 2019, losing to Jose Ramirez by a sixth-round knockout.

Ortiz feels that he’s stronger than Ramirez, and if he’s right, Hooker won’t last long against him unless he lands something big early.

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday

Image: Vergil Ortiz Jr 147 vs. Maurice Hooker 147 - weigh-in results for Saturday