Vergil Ortiz is one of, if not, the brightest young stars in the sport. Having won all 17 of his pro bouts by way of knockout, plus capturing Prospect of the Year awards by all major boxing publications. The undefeated welterweight will be taking to his talents to The Star in Frisco, only about 30 miles from where the Grand Prairie native grew up. For a 12- round bout for the WBO international title, with former world title challenger, Egidijus Kavaliauskas. The scarp amounts to little more than a litmus test for the Texan.
Kavaliauskas, fought WBO welterweight champ and Pound for Pound elite Terence Crawford in 2019. Kavaliauskas was surprisingly competitive throughout the first three rounds and may have even dropped a staggered Crawford in the third round. It was however ruled a slip. Bud, flipped the switch, hit the gas, and turned the fight around. Dropping the challenger twice on his way to a 9th round TKO victory. Vergil Ortiz is currently ranked number one by the WBO meaning he could get a call at any time to fight Crawford. Following Ortiz's last fight, a KO over fellow Texan Maurice "Mighty Mo' he already made the call out of the long-reigning champion. Saying he didn't care if he was ready he wanted to fight Crawford. Crawford went on to say that he should go fight Kavaliauskas. Ortiz abide.
The Ortiz/Kavaliauskas is fairly academic, no fighter is to be looked past, but the Grand Prairie native has far superior skills and firepower. So the entire world is expecting Ortiz to continue his KO streak. The only question is how does he do it? Can he do it without struggling and do it more impressively than Crawford fif to try and force the hand of either the Champion to accept the fight or force the hand of the organization to mandate Ortiz fight, Bud.
This fight is a litmus test for Ortiz, how far has he progressed and how close is he to the absolute elite in the division The elite in the division is Terence Crawford and Errol Spence of Desoto and Manny Pacquiao who square off in a few weeks. Ortiz wants to fight both and has not minced words on the subject. He wanted to fight Hooker and spent a lot of 2019 calling him out. He got the fight and delivered a spectacular performance. He wants Crawford and then Spence and will likely have to go through them in that order. Crawford is set to fight the two-time former welterweight champ, Shawn Porter. Should he win. The Crawford vs Ortiz fight becomes all too simple. Both fighters have struggled to work with PBC to fight their elite stable of 147-pounders so a Crawford-Ortix fight kind of makes itself organically as its ways to make and better options aren't easily available.
If Oritz is successful in the fight, and that's certainly possible a Spence fight sets itself up as the premier fight in the sport. It would replace Spence/Crawford as the fight everyone is talking about and the biggest money fight in any division south of Canelo and it would make a Spence-Ortiz fight the premier money-making fight in any of those divisions. It all starts, Saturday night, at The Star in Frisco, Ortiz needs to win and win spectacularly to force a Crawford fight and go from there.