Junior middleweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. is ready to face his aged amateur rival Ryan Garcia, but he has his sights set on his next opponent, Serhiy Bohachuk.
Ortiz and Garcia have recently been involved in an online spat about a potential fight between them. Garcia has called out numerous fighters since his junior welterweight fight with Devin Haney in April and appears to be planning to move up to 154 pounds after challenging Errol Spence and now Ortiz. However, the fighter will have to wait to meet either of them, as he has been banned from the sport for a year after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug ostarine.
Meanwhile, Ortiz’s attention is focused on his next opponent, Bohachuk, who he will hope to defeat for the WBC interim title. The current junior middleweight has had a great start to the division since moving up from welterweight. While his focus is on his next opponent, Ortiz said he would be open to fighting Garcia, but admitted that the possibility of a fight is not on his mind right now.
“It could happen, but not anytime soon, because he’s fucking banned,” Ortiz told Fight Hub TV. “As far as I know, it’s not even in my head right now. I don’t know what to expect from him, I really don’t. I’m going to focus on what’s 100%, I’ve got a fight coming up, we’ve got other fights lined up if everything goes well. I’m going to focus on myself, I’m not focusing on anyone else anymore.”
Garcia recently defeated his aged amateur rival Haney, but that win was stricken from his record due to a failed drug test. Now he seems determined to take on another foe from the unpaid ranks after facing Ortiz multiple times as an amateur. Garcia claims the pair fought three times in their younger days, and he won all three. Ortiz denies that, though, and is more than content to do it again as a pro.
“We fought twice, I don’t know where he got the third fight from,” Ortiz added. “We fought once in 2009 when we were 11. He beat me, but we were fucking 11, they count punches, all those little kicks as points. Then we fought in 2014 or 2015, I mean, yeah, we were older, like 16, something like that. I lost a split decision 2-1, one judge thought I won, I thought I won. Bring up the past all you want, I’m not bringing up the past, I’m not being mean about it, but I’ll correct you, you didn’t beat me, it was a close fight. We didn’t fight three times, we fought twice, one of them, we were 11. He’s bringing up the past – if he wants to talk about it, we can talk about it.”
Promoter Frank Warren has said he will not push for a fight between Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois given that both heavyweights are in his stable and any fight between them would put him in an “awkward position”.
Dubois defended his IBF belt with a devastating fifth-round knockout victory over Anthony Joshua in London on Saturday, silencing any doubters and cementing his place as one of the best fighters in his weight class.
The 27-year-old surprised Joshua with a first-round knockdown in front of 96,000 fans, then boxed his opponent to finish the fight in round 5.
Asked if he thought Dubois could fight Fury, who will have a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh on December 21, Warren replied: “I’ll tell you honestly, I would be in a very, very awkward position, but if that’s what they want and the business requires, that’s their business.
“It’s not something I would push for. If an offer comes along that makes sense, that’s their call.”
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has called for a rematch, which Warren said he’s open to. However, he was adamant that there’s no strenuous and swift clause for an immediate rematch, and Dubois will call the shots.
“They can have it if they want it,” Warren said. “I think it’s something to consider. Absolutely, everything is on the table. We’ll work it out and see what’s best for Daniel. We’re in the Daniel Dubois business, the IBF business, and we’ll see what’s best.”
Dubois was celebrating his victory until slow last night and while he admitted he is open to a rematch, he also has his eye on Fury and another fight with Usyk, who he lost to last year.
“Everybody said I was going to get knocked out, we all saw who got knocked out. I’m glad I proved everybody wrong, but this is the beginning of my journey,” Dubois said. “They [Fury and Usyk] are my goals now; I want to get revenge [against Usyk] and right what is wrong.
“I feel like a champ, I’m going to hold this lane and keep this train moving.”
Josh Kelly made it clear after his dominant victory at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night which fighters he wants to see in his next fight.
Kelly defeated substitute Ishmael Davis in Riyadh by majority decision after 12 rounds and immediately turned his attention to Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr.
The Sunderland man’s control of the match with Davis, who replaced the ill Liam Smith, was not reflected in the scoring, which Kelly described as “a bit crazy”.
However, ‘Pretty Boy’ emerged as the clear winner and stated that once the wounds on his nose heal, he wants 2025 to bring him large nights against large domestic rivals.
Josh Kelly said: “The Liam Smith thing is a bit crazy right now. I’ve been training for this fight all year and it keeps getting cancelled.
“Conor Benn or Eubank, find me one of them, 100%. It might have to be next year, let me get better.”
“They want to box on these cards, I boxed on this card, let’s make a fight. I believe I can beat them both.”
Kalle Sauerland, global head of boxing at Wasserman, said: “Of course Liam Smith is still a great fighter, as is Conor Benn, Chris Eubank and potentially Kell Brook.
“The Conor Benn fight has been going on for six or seven years. Kell Brook was talked about a lot leading up to that fight, and we did the Smith fight before he got thrown out.”
Commentator Steve Bunce believes Anthony Joshua will not have as much confidence in his ability to beat Daniel Dubois in a rematch as he did after his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.
(Source: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) is now five years older at 34, while Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is significantly younger at 27. He is a much stronger boxer than Andy Ruiz and is not going to party and easily make 280+ pounds.
It is unknown whether Joshua will decide to fight Dubois again because it is risky and he can make more money by fighting Tyson Fury. If his promoter, Eddie Hearn, comes up with a good excuse to tell the public why AJ will not fight Dubois again, they will believe him.
Joshua and Hearn thought it was a lot easier to trigger the rematch clause and fight Ruiz Jr. again because he had put on weight. He was never a gigantic talent. He was just a fringe prospect that Joshua used as a replacement opponent when Jarrell Miller tested positive for drugs in 2019.
“He’s a little older and probably wondering how much longer he has left. He was so convinced after [Andy] “I believed Ruiz would win the rematch,” Steve Bunce said iFL TV on whether Anthony Joshua will want a rematch with Daniel Dubois, as he did after losing to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.
If Joshua is worried about how fans will perceive him by avoiding the rematch, he will overcome his fear and fight Dubois again. But Hearn or someone on his team could talk him out of fighting Dubois.
“I’m not sure he would have the same confidence. He had complete faith that if he got Ruiz again, he would beat him. It was complete faith. He’s not stupid. I don’t think he had complete faith that he would beat Dubois in a rematch. He can say it, but he feels it,” Bunce said.
Joshua won’t have the confidence to beat Dubois like he did Ruiz, but that’s obvious. In the Ruiz fight, Joshua wasn’t getting beat up in the first round and was fighting well until he was knocked down in the third round on June 1, 2019.
“He should have been stopped a few rounds earlier. He seemed to be thinking too much,” Diallian Whyte told iFL TV about Joshua thinking too much and not letting go of his hands. “Sometimes AJ can be too much of a thinker. AJ was thinking instead of waving his hands. Dubois was waving his hands. Dubois was intelligent. Credit to him, his dad and Don Charles.
AJ’s trainer, Ben Davison, didn’t want to pull him out of the Dubois fight and risk angering him. We’ve seen Joshua change trainers a few times, and it would have been too risky for Ben to pull him out of the Dubois fight in the second or third round to save him.
For coaches who are confident they won’t be fired for pulling their fighters when they’re losing, this won’t be a problem; given how often Joshua has changed coaches, Ben would have put himself at risk of being fired had he given up in the first two or three rounds last Saturday.
“Joshua has made a lot of money and done great things. He can come back and still fight good fights. He has made a lot of money and got a lot of fame. Maybe the spark is not there,” Whyte said.
Dubois hurt Joshua not because of the wealth AJ has acquired in recent years. Joshua was hurt because he couldn’t handle Dubois’ power or any fighter who punched demanding. Joshua’s chin has been vulnerable since his 2017 fight with Wladimir Klitschko, and he’s been stunned many times since then.
Fighters who hurt Joshua:
-Daniel Dubois – Carlos the Greedy -Alexander Povetkin –Andy Ruiz Jr. – Oleksandr Usyk – Kubrat Pulev – Wladimir Klitschko -Dillian Whyte
“It’s not an simple fight for Tyson Fury,” Whyte said, reacting to reports that Fury wants to beat Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 and then beat Dubois to become undisputed champion. “Fury has to be careful because Dubois has the power of Ngannou. Dubois can box a lot better than Ngannou. So he has to be careful.
“Fury can tie Dubois up to stop him from fighting because Dubois let AJ tie him up so easily. It was crazy,” Whyte said.
Dubois would still be a problem for Fury, as he can’t stay up and lean into the win like he did against Deontay Wilder. Fury’s chin isn’t as good as it once was, and Dubois will land harder punches than those that hurt him against Oleksandr Usyk.
Dubois’ body shots will cause Fury problems as he tends to lean into the ropes to avoid headshots, and his body is always exposed when he does this.
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