Vergil Ortiz Jr’s Manager, Rick Mirigian, threw cold water on the reports that they’re targeting a fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for February 22nd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mirigian says he wants Errol Spence or Keith Thurman for Vergil Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) for Cowboys Stadium in Texas. However, he’s not ruling out a fight between Vergil Jr. and Boots or Terence Crawford if “someone can afford” that fight.
Spence and Thurman are both considered washed fighters at this point. Thurman hasn’t fought in almost three years, and he would be a poor choice for Vergil Jr. to defend his WBC interim 154-lb strap against.
Ennis Not An Option For Vergil Jr
Fans should have known better than to believe that Ortiz Jr. would risk his career fighting Jaron Ennis and likely losing to him. That would be a huge step up in class for Vergil, who looked like he was still paining by the number system in his last fight at 154.
It would be His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. It is unknown whether he would want to finance a fight between WBC interim junior middleweight champion Ortiz and Boots or Crawford. There’s no chance that Crawford would agree to fight Vergil Jr. because he’s not well-known to casual boxing fans, and it wouldn’t bring in a lot of PPV buys. Only hardcore boxing fans know who Vergil Jr. is, and many of them see him as flawed, especially after his last fight.
It’s pretty obvious why Mirigian would want the 35-year-old ‘One Time’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) for Vergil Ortiz Jr. to fight. That would be a sure-thing win for Vergil, who looked terrible in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk.
Thurman has fought just once in the last five years, and that was against Mario Barrios. The former welterweight champion Thurman has wrecked his career by being inactive after making good money from his fights against Manny Pacquiao and Danny Garcia.
Given Vergil Jr’s highly questionable 12-round majority decision win over Serhii Bohachuk on August 10th, this isn’t the ideal time for Turki to make a fight between him and Ennis or Crawford. If Vergil wants to fight Spence if he’s victorious against WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora, that’s one thing.
We are not eying Boots, Ortiz and anyone in the Top 5 works for a BIG fight and when an offer comes along then we will go from there. I think Ortiz/Spence at Cowboy Stadium becomes the biggest fight in Texas history but if someone can afford Ortiz/Boots or Ortiz/Crawford then my… https://t.co/WzDIXfkwwn
— Rick Mirigian (@RGMPROMO) October 25, 2024
We would love that, Vergil has asked for that fight for years and Thurman wouldn’t do but if Thurman wanted that fight it would get made fast TOMORROW…… https://t.co/zsTHDp3ZC5
— Rick Mirigian (@RGMPROMO) October 25, 2024
