The third time is hopefully the charm for the woefully delayed WBA secondary world title fight between current champion, Eimantas Stanionis, and his undefeated challenger Vergil Ortiz Jr., which will take place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, on July 8th, which will be broadcast on DAZN and promoted by Ortiz’s promoter, Golden Boy Promotions.
The bout was originally postponed when Stanionis need to have an operation on his appendix, and then more recently Ortiz had a second flare-up of rhabdomyolysis which removed him from the fight. This week it was announced the two will fight again via an official press release.
Recently, ProBox TV News caught up with Ortiz’s manager, Rick Mirigian, who gave us an update on Vergil Ortiz Jr.
"Healthy and happy - there’s your update,” said Rick Mirigian, the manager of Vergil Ortiz to ProBox TV News. “You know how a healthy and happy fighter fights, and when a guy is 19-0 with 19 knockouts and he's 100% and he's happy, that's a dangerous man right there. I think July 8th is when he'll have his first world title fight, and I think Vergil is the future of boxing. Ryan Garcia was a big thing for Golden Boy [Promotions], but I think those in the sport knew that there was a clock on that. What Ryan [Garcia did was phenomenal doing a million buys [on pay-per-view with Gervonta Davis], building up the marketing to the fight the way he did, he deserves every penny he made, but from a longevity standpoint, I think Vergil Ortiz, now the spotlight is going to shift to Virgil to carry the torch.”
Mirigian sees Ortiz as a multi-weight world champion, but someone who will be the face of Golden Boy Promotions for years to come. Beyond Golden Boy Promotions, it seems as though the hope is that Ortiz Jr. could become a pay-per-view-type star as the team is calling for an Errol Spence Jr. fight, if successful against Stanionis.
Ortiz’s health has been a focal point after his second case of rhabdomyolysis. Mirigian assured ProBox TV News that Ortiz Jr is as healthy as ever.
“ESPN ran a big story on Vergil interviewed the doctor,” stated Mirigian about the health of Ortiz Jr. “Vergil had never let his body rest. He had three busted camps that happened from fights that had fell out and Stanionis got injured and had his appendix taken out. So Vergil never slowed down. This is one of the hardest-working fighters that I know. He got a month's worth of rest, rehab, and his treatment was done twice a day. Look, we can't talk about what happens at the gym, but I can tell you that recently there's been some sparring partners that have felt a healthy Vergil Ortiz, and we all noticed the difference already.”