Vergil Ortiz looks to end his lengthy lay-off from the ring in his new weight class of junior welterweight. The catch is it will be in 2024.
The news broke on Halloween night as boxing writer Ryan O'Hara was the first to report that the undefeated Golden Boy Promotions fighter Vergil Ortiz, who has won all of his professional bout by way of knockout, is targeted to headline a DAZN card on January 6th, as he will face Fredick Lawson. Per Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com, it appears that the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada could be the venue.
Golden Boy Promotions has begun to shift its focus away from Southern California and now seems to be working on building up its home base in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ortiz last fought in August of 2022 when he secured a ninth-round knockout victory over the previously unbeaten Michael McKinson in Fort Worth, Texas, close to his Grand Prairie hometown.
2023 though has been a nightmare for Ortiz as two scheduled fights have fallen through. In 2022, prior to his first scheduled bout with McKinson, he was hospitalized for rhabdomyolysis something that is now becoming a trend in his career. Subsequently, his planned world title bout against Eimantas Stanionis, where he was named the mandatory challenger, faced multiple delays. Despite winning the purse bid for the fight in December, Golden Boy, the bout never happened as health issues around the weight-cutting process canceled the fight not once, but twice.. Following the second failed fight, Ortiz's team announced that they would move up to the junior middleweight division.
His upcoming opponent, Fredrick Lawson, has predominantly competed in the welterweight division over the course of his career. The 33-year-old fighter hails from Ghana but resides and trains in Chicago. Lawson is riding a two-fight win streak after losing to Charles Hatley, who stopped Lawson in the tenth and final round of that bout.
