Ortiz Predicts a “Tactical” War with Tszyu

By Tim Compton - 04/28/2024 - Comments

Vergil Ortiz Jr. says he already knows how his next fight with Tim Tszyu will play out when they meet on August 3rd in Los Angeles.

Ortiz (21-0, 21 KOs) isn’t willing to reveal exactly how he plans to fight the former WBO light welterweight champion Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs), but he says it’ll be a “tactical” World War III match-up.

It doesn’t seem realistic what Ortiz is predicting about a tactical war. With Tszyu’s attacking style, Vergil will be forced into an all-out war from the start on August 3rd.

Ortiz’s Recent Dominance

The 26-year-old Vergil Ortiz looked good last Saturday night when he knocked out Thomas Dulorme with a body shot in the first round at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California. That was against an older fighter, who’d been knocked out in the first round by Jaron ‘Boots Ennis and in the eighth round by Terence Crawford.

“I just saw it. He left the window open a little too long and I just took it. That’s really it. There was nothing special about it,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to the Sean Zittel YouTube channel, talking about his knockout of Thomas Dulorme last Saturday night.

“I didn’t throw it hard. It was just perfectly placed. I was,” said Ortiz when asked if he was trying to get some rounds in. “My last fight, I came out blazing. This fight, I thought, ‘I’m going to take my time.”

Ortiz had the ideal opponent for him to look good against fighting the 34-year-old Dulorme, who isn’t the same guy that gave Crawford problems in 2015. Dulorme came into last Saturday night’s fight with three losses in his last four fights.

That’s obviously why Dulorme was chosen by Golden Boy. They knew he was a soft touch and didn’t want to take any chances by matching Vergil against someone good.

“I’m not going to put all my power behind my punches and see what lands.’ One of the punches that landed clean got the job done,” said Vergil about his mindset going into his fight with Dulorme.

Secrets and Strategy for Tszyu Fight

“I already have an idea of how the fight is going to go down,” said Ortiz Jr. about his clash against Tim Tszyu on August 3rd. “It’s going to be World War III, but it’s going to be tactical. We don’t just throw all the soldiers out there and let them fight.”

Sebastian Fundora showed that Tszyu is susceptible to the jab, but that might not work for Ortiz because he’s not 6’5 1/2″ like ‘The Towering Inferno.’

“I don’t know,” said Ortiz when asked how he plans on fighting Tszyu. “It’s a very tough fight. Those fighters are very difficult to predict like that. We’ll study him and see what we got to do and what we got to work on.”

Tszyu will pressure Vergil, and if he’s to win, he’ll need to handle the heat.

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