Vergil Ortiz Jr. confirmed in an interview on Wednesday that he’s already said “yes” to a fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis next if he’s victorious in his title defense of his WBC interim junior middleweight title against Erickson Lubin this Saturday, November 8th, at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
“We’ll See” Raises Doubt
What made Ortiz Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) sound wishy-washy was his comment, “We’ll see,” when questioned about his willingness to face Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) next. That’s not exactly a positive-sounding comment. When someone says that to you, it’s similar to someone saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll get together one of these days.’ You know that you’ll never hear or see them again.
It’s a risky one for Vergil Jr. So, it’s understandable why he’s not sounding amped up about fighting Ennis because if he loses, he can forget about a significant payday fighting for a world title against WBC 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora.
Ortiz Jr-Lubin will be headlining on DAZN this Saturday. That fight stands out above the rest on this Golden Boy-promoted card
“I think there’s more pressure on him because a lot of people are counting him out. So, that’s going to bring the fire out of him,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr. to Ring Magazine when asked if there’s more pressure on him going into Saturday’s fight with Erickson Lubin.
Pressure on Vergil, Not Lubin
Who is Vergil Jr. kidding? The pressure is on him in this fight, not Lubin, because he’s the favorite and fighting at home in Texas. If Ortiz Jr. wins, he’s got two excellent, well-playing options against Fundora or ‘Boots’ Ennis.
“In turn, that’s going to bring the fire out of me because he’s going to have some kind of urgency in the ring,” said Ortiz Jr. “So, now I have urgency.”
Ortiz Jr. is going to have to bring urgency to this fight because Lubin will be all over him, looking to finish what Israil Madrimov and Serhii Bohachuk started. Those two fighters inflicted a lot of damage on Ortiz Jr.
He beat Madrimov by a 12-round unanimous decision on February 22, 2025, in Riyadh. The scores were 115-113, 115-113, and 117-111. Last year on August 10, Vergil Jr. beat Bohachuk by a 12-round majority on August 10, 2024.
“I’ve already said, ‘Yes,’ but we’ll see,” said Vergi Jr. when told that Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and promoter Eddie Hearn will be ringside on Saturday night to begin pressuring to make the fight with him next.
