By Matt Lieberman: Vergil Ortiz Jr (16-0, 16 KOs) has WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, in his sights as his primary target for his next fight should he get past Maurice Hooker (27-3-1, 18 KOs) this Saturday night on DAZN.
The unbeaten #2 ranked WBO contender Ortiz, and former WBO light welterweight champion Hooker are battling for the WBO International 147-lb title in the main event this Saturday night at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ortiz, 22, believes that a fight between the Top Rank promoted Crawford and himself can easily be made. Vergil feels he’s ready to fight the 33-year-old Crawford now, and he’s confident that he’ll beat him.
Crawford is running out of opponents now, and it’s not looking good for him as far as his dream of fighting Manny Pacquiao while he’s still with Top Rank.
Ortiz and Shawn Porter might be the most realistic Crawford options before he finishes out his contract with Top Rank in 2021.
Vergil Ortiz targeting Crawford after Hooker
“Honestly, the Crawford fight is the easiest fight to make,” Ortiz Jr said to Fighthub on the fight he wants next after Hooker. “He’s with Top Rank. Golden Boy and Top Rank work with each other.
“Hooker is Crawford’s stable-mate. He’s right there training with him and sparring with him. I’m fighting for the WBO International title [against Hooker], and Crawford has the WBO belt. It only makes sense.
I’m piecing everything together. All the pieces fit [for Vergil Ortiz Jr to face Crawford next]. It does, I’m really excited for this fight.
“If they offer me the Crawford fight right after the Hooker fight, I’ll take it,” Ortiz continued. “If they offer for me to have another hard fight and then Crawford, I would probably still take Crawford.
“This is what I’ve been fighting for. Crawford is about to end his Top Rank thing with his contract. I don’t want to miss that opportunity.
“This is as easy as it can get to making the fight with Golden Boy and Top Rank. I would want to fight him [Crawford] as soon as possible.
“A lot of people thought that with Teofimo Lopez and Lomachenko, and he beat him,” said Ortiz Jr when asked if it’s too soon for him to face Crawford. “I’m more than capable of beating Crawford.”
The only way that Ortiz doesn’t get the fight with Crawford this year is if the Nebraska native gets a better offer against Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr, or Shawn Porter.
There’s a good chance that Crawford will fight Porter in May, and then he would be free to fight Ortiz Jr in September or October before his contract expires with Top Rank.
It would be an excellent fight between the heavy-handed Ortiz and the counter-punching Crawford. If Crawford isn’t able to knock out Ortiz early as he did against Kell Brook, he could wind up getting beaten up.
Ortiz won’t follow Jose Ramirez’s blueprint
“Hooker isn’t going to want to fight the same way twice. He did get knocked out by Jose [Ramirez],” said Vergil Ortiz to Fighthub. A lot of people think me and Jose have similar styles, which we kind of do.
He’s definitely not going to fight the same way, so fighting the same blueprint twice [wouldn’t work],” Vergil said. “What worked for Jose might not work for me, so we’re just going to go about it my way.
“Besides the reach advantage that he has, it’s going to be a competitive fight. I saw when he fought Jose, whenever he would land, he would want to answer back. He has that hunger that I don’t think I’ve seen in other fighters yet,” said Ortiz.
It doesn’t make sense for Ortiz not to follow Ramirez’s blueprint on how to beat the 5’11” Hooker because that’s his natural style anyway.
Ramirez employed pressure in walking Hooker down, dropping him in the first before knocking him out in the sixth.