Former prospect of the year and Grand Prairie native, Vergil Ortiz will resume his career after a few medical scares, and will move up from 147 to 154. The undefeated 25-year-old will headline a January 6th Golden Boy card in Las Vegas. Ortiz has not fought in Las Vegas since May 2019 on the undercard of Canelo-Jacobs. Ortiz scored a brutal and star-making KO of Mauricio Herrera. It will be the first Vegas card that the young KO artist has headlined. He has previously headlined cards in Texas and California.
Ortiz currently sports a perfect 19-0 record, with all 19 wins coming by way of stoppage. The Texan will battle Chicago-based, Ghanaian-born Fredick Lawson, 30-3 (22). A hard-hitting fringe contender who has mixed it up with some high-level fighters. The 33-year-old Ghanaian has a win over Breidis Prescott and has been in with Dallas native Charles Hatley and Canadian contender Kevin Bizer. In his three losses, Lawson was stopped in all of them, a recipe for disaster when stepping in with a fighter who has stopped every opponent he has faced.
Ortiz last fought in Fort Worth in August 2022 and stopped Michael Mckinson in nine rounds. The Texan was named mandatory challenger to WBA titlist Eimantas Stanionis after the McKinson win. That fight was scheduled three times but never came to fruition. Originally, Stanionis needed to pull out due to Appendicitis. The fight was rescheduled for April, and finally, July. Ortiz was forced to pull out both times with flare-ups of his rhabdomyolysis diagnosis.