In 2016, a young Vergil Ortiz weighed in at 139 pounds for his professional debut, a four-round, jr welterweight affair with Julio Rodas. Ortiz won that bout by first round stoppage. He has gone on to win every other fight by stoppage as well, and has run his record to 19-0 (19). No longer a jr welterweight, the now 25-year-old Grand Prairie native tipped the scales at 156-pounds, officially making the contracted weight for Saturday's fight in Las Vegas against Fredrick Lawson 30-3 (22).
Ortiz will end his 17-month layoff in what amounts to a tune-up fight with Lawson, a Chicago resident who originally hails from Accra, Ghana, who last fought at UT-Arlington back in April and scored a career-best win over Estevan Villalobos via unanimous decision. Lawson, was also knocked out by Dallas-based junior middleweight and world title challenger Charles Hatley back in 2021. Ortiz last fought in August of 2022 and scored a 9th-round TKO of Michael Mckinson at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Ortiz, was scheduled to fight Lithuanian welterweight title holder Eimantas Stanionis. However, that fight fell through three different times for emergency medical reasons. First, the Lithuanian had to have emergency appendectomy surgery, which postponed its originaly fight date, that scheduled for last January. The fight was then called off twice more when Ortiz had flare-ups of his previously diagnosed rhabdomyolysis. The Grand Prarie native has never weighed in above the 147-pound limit in his professional career. Ortiz will be carrying nine extra pounds as he makes his "middleweight" debut! However the North Texan will in all likelihood, campaign at 154 pounds moving forward. The division will likely featrue two other pound for pound elites in DeSoto naive Errol Spence and Houton native Jermell Charlo. DraftKings sportsbook lists Ortiz as a 25-1 favorite to beat Lawson.