LAS VEGAS — Vergil Ortiz Jr. wanted this.
The junior middleweight contender went to struggle with Serhii Bohachuk on Saturday night time, going via hell, going the 12-round distance for the primary time in his skilled profession.
Heck, this was solely the third time in Ortiz’s 22 professional fights that he had gone previous seven rounds. Earlier than Saturday, his 21 professional victories had taken place over a complete of 71 rounds.
“That is all a studying expertise for him,” Ortiz’s coach, Robert Garcia, advised reporters after the bout. “He’s by no means carried out it earlier than. He’s by no means been concerned in these sorts of fights. So that is positively going to assist him. He’s going to be taught loads. He adopted directions. He did what he was advised. There have been these moments the place we’d remind him, ‘You gotta watch out, that proper hand, maintain that left hand up,’ stuff like that. However on the finish, we’re happy along with his efficiency.”
Ortiz was dropped twice, rising shortly and protesting every knockdown. He gained narrowly on the scorecards by majority resolution, two judges seeing it 114-112 whereas the third had it even at 113-113.
“That is the way in which boxing is. Not each battle goes to be straightforward,. Particularly on the subject of title fights. They’re all going to be arduous,” Garcia mentioned. “Vergil is in a second the place he wanted one thing like this to be taught and to be prepared for these huge fights. Each battle has been — I can’t say ‘straightforward’ as a result of it’s sort of offending his opponents — however he’s comfortably gained all of his fights by knockouts. So this was studying expertise for him, for me, for his dad, for the entire staff. Now we have to be taught from this.”
It’s not simply that Bohachuk wasn’t going to go down straightforward, or in any respect. It’s that Bohachuk wouldn’t relent on offense, which posed an extra set of challenges.
“All we’ve seen from [Ortiz] is knockouts, making fights really easy, knocking all people out. However entering into the kind of struggle within the late rounds the place he’s drained, he’s taking some punishment, however he nonetheless has the guts ,the mentality to complete sturdy and to pay attention, ‘You want these rounds,’ that claims loads a few fighter,” Garcia mentioned. “There are such a lot of fighters that we’ve labored with that gained’t be capable to do this within the ring as a result of it’s simply virtually unattainable.”
Comply with David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His guide, “Combating Phrases: The Coronary heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is accessible on Amazon.
