Vergil Ortiz Jr. building stardom, one knockout at a time
Some might be surprised to learn that Vergil Ortiz Jr.’s favorite sport isn’t boxing. It’s cross country.
Ortiz ran three-mile courses all four years at Grand Prairie High School outside Dallas. He embraced the grit and focus required to compete in long-distance races. And he loved the team aspect of the sport. The problem was that he was only pretty good in cross country, not great.
“I wasn’t slow,” he told Boxing Junkie. “I just wasn’t nationally ranked or anything like that. I was just happy to be there.”
Boxing? Well, his opponents probably wish he’d been better at cross country and gone that direction.
The moment Ortiz first sparred one day after kindergarten he was hooked. And he was good. A few years later he discovered something else: He had an unusual ability to knock out his opponents, a marketable talent he retains to this day.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (right) celebrates another knockout, this one against Mauricio Herrera in May of last year. Al Bello / Getty Images
Ortiz has caused a stir since turning professional in 2016, stopping all 15 of his opponents – six in the first round – to become one of the hottest welterweight prospects on the planet.
He returns to the ring after a seven-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic against veteran Samuel Vargas on July 24 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif., on DAZN.
“I’ve been putting people down since I was 9 years old,” Ortiz said. “It’s not because I had power. I always had the right punch placement. I remember the first time I dropped someone to the body. It wasn’t like Mike Tyson power. I was only 9.
“It was just a perfect shot to the body. Ever since then I’ve been hurting people in different ways.”
Ortiz said he doesn’t look for knockouts, although he used to. He went into the first few bouts of his pro career – which he described as his “worst fights” – with one goal in mind: “Knock the dude’s head off.”
That almost came back to bite him in his fifth fight, a scheduled four-rounder against Angel Sarinana in May 2017. He went for the kill from the opening bell, as usual, but was unable to score a first-round knockout for the first time.
By the second round, Ortiz was in trouble before regrouping and stopping Sarinana in Round 3.
Ortiz said he’s learned not to try for knockouts. They just come. Ethan Miller / Getty Images
“I gassed myself out,” he said. “By the second round, I was completely winded. At that point, I knew something had to change. I can’t keep doing this. Eventually you find a guy who can take a punch, like this guy.
“That’s when I started using my head more, making every punch count.”
He went on: “I want to look good winning. I used to stop people in the amateurs and my dad would tell me, ‘You didn’t do good, you didn’t do what you were supposed to do.’ At first, I was like, “Really?” I see it now, though. I understand when you look good and don’t look good. I have to do what I’m supposed to do and I have to look good doing it.
“If one day I don’t knock some guy out … as long as I look good in the fight, as long as I did what I was supposed to do and learned something from it, that’s win-win for me.”
Ortiz has done what he was supposed to do since that fifth fight. The knockouts have come. And with them has come adulation and excitement, both from fans and those around him.
That includes his handlers at Golden Boy Promotions.
Said Golden Boy President Eric Gomez: “There’s other good prospects out there but the skills this kid has I haven’t seen in a long time, and I’ve been promoting boxing for 20 years. He’s incredible, he can do it all.”
Of course, Ortiz recognizes and appreciates the reaction to his success. At the same time, he recognizes reality. He’s 22. This is only the beginning of his boxing journey, meaning he hasn’t accomplished much yet.
That’s his attitude. Confident, but humble. He seems to have common sense.
“It’s not something I expected, especially so early in my career,” he said, referring to the adulation. “I try to block it out. I’m only in this position because I trained hard in the gym. To keep that going, I have to be training like nobody else.
“Technically, I’m not anybody. I’m not a world champion, I haven’t done anything special in the sport yet.”
That will come, he believes. All he has to do is continue to win and the opportunities to face the biggest names in the sport – welterweights like Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford – will present themselves eventually.
He understands that politics could be a problem. He fights for Golden Boy, Spence for Premier Boxing Champions and Crawford for Top Rank, to mention just three prominent 147-pounders. Those are divides that are sometimes difficult to overcome.
Still, he is convinced it’ll happen.
“I think if it weren’t for the other-side-of-the-street thing the fights would happy pretty soon,” he said. “I’ve learned that it’s a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be. I have to really prove myself. I have to force the fight to happen.
“I don’t know how. Maybe I’ll become a mandatory [challenger]. They’ll want to pay me off and I’ll say no. I don’t know. When the time comes I’ll figure it out.”
When it does happen, Ortiz is certain he’ll be ready.
“I feel I’m ready now,” he said. “And even if I weren’t, I would still take the fight because you can’t pass up an opportunity like that. I feel I can give any welterweight a hard fight right now. To be honest, I think they’re making a mistake not fighting me right now.
“I’m only getting stronger, getting smarter, gaining experience.”