At today’s weigh-in, former welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (19-0, 19 KOs) weighed in at 156 lbs, and his opponent Fredrick Lawson (30-3, 22 KOs) weighed 152.4 lbs for their headliner this Saturday night at the Virgins Hotels Las Vegas and live on DAZN.
Ortiz looked good at the weight for his first fight at junior middleweight. For someone who has been out of the ring for 16 months, he didn’t look like he’d been through the wringer making the weight for the fight.
DAZN weights:
- Vergil Ortiz Jr. 156 vs. Fredrick Lawson 152.4
- Arnold Barboza Jr. 139.4 vs. Xolisani Ndongeni 139.2
- Ismael Barroso 139.6 vs. Ohara Davies 140
“Golden Boy is treating me like family, and I’m excited,” said Arnold Barboza Jr. to DAZN Boxing at today’s weigh-in for his fight this Saturday night against Xolisani Ndongeni.
“I can’t wait to put on a show for them. The 140-lb division is probably the hottest division in boxing right now, and I see Oscar [De La Hoya] get things done, and he’s making moves.
“I’ve had pressure my whole career. One of the reasons I’m with Golden Boy is I see his resume. He has the blueprint. I’ve seen what he’s done for Canelo, Ryan, and Vergil. He’s doing it with him. That’s what I want.
“The performance can take care of itself because of the training. That’s what I train for. So, I’m ready to go on Saturday.”
“Can Vergil Ortiz can back to before all the issues that derailed him?” said Chris Mannix on his Boxing site.
“I think he can, no question about it. I’ve been watching Vergil his entire career, and I know he was trying to make a run of things in the welterweight division,” said Dan Rafael.
“He didn’t get a chance to fight for a belt because of his health issues that caused the fight to be postponed, and we’re talking about Eimantas Stanionis. This is a fight that I was really pumped up for. A lot of boxing fans thought that was a tremendous match-up.
“Can he get it back? Absolutely, yes,” said Rafael about Vergil Ortiz Jr. “He’s only 25 years old; he hasn’t taken a lot of punishment in the ring. He’s not a guy who has been knocked around and beaten up. He’s pretty much thrashed every opponent he’s had by knockout and hasn’t even been extended the distance in any of his fights.
“The only thing that’s stood between him and stardom is his physical ailments. He said his biggest thing is activity. He said he wanted to get back to when he was at his best, and he described when he was at his best.
“He was talking about the timeframe from 2019 to right before he moved up to welterweight. At welterweight in that year, first of all, he fought four times. He ran through some pretty solid guys. They were Mauricio Herrera, who had never been stopped.
“Antonio Orozco, who was a quality contender, and then Brad Solomon, who was still getting the job done at that time. Those were some quality wins, and he followed it up with some other quality wins against Hooker and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. He was stringing together some good wins.
“2 1/2 years out of the ring because of his physical limitations. He says he wants to get three or four fights, hopefully in 2024. The fact that your first fight in 2024 comes a few fights into the New Year should certainly make it possible if you’re healthy to fight at least three times.
“I’m sure he’d be thrilled. I’m sure Golden Boy would be thrilled and DAZN would be thrilled. He’s now in a new weight class. He’s talked about walking around at 170 lbs at a non-getting-ready-for-a-fight Vergil Ortiz.
“So, 154 lbs is much less strenuous than it was at 147, which was obviously reasons proven that he can no longer make,” said Rafael.
