Golden Boy Promotions boss Oscar De La Hoya says Vergil Ortiz Jr will be moving to 154 after suffering “dehydration” and “fatigue” while trying to make weight for his now-canceled fight against WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis in San Antonio, Texas.
De La Hoya feels that Ortiz (19-0, 19 KOs) will be at his “ideal” weight by moving up to 154, and he sees him winning a world title soon.
The 25-year-old Ortiz fainted on Wednesday and was taken to a hospital. For the Golden Boy star, this was his third time having issues trying to make it to a fight against WBA secondary 147-lb champion Stanionis.
Vergil Jrr had talked of his struggles to makee weight, and in hindsight, he should have already moved up to 154 to save himself the aggravation of trying to make the 147-lb limit.
In going up to 154, Ortiz Jr will be in a division that Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford will soon be at, and there be a lot of great opportunities for him against those fighters, as well as many others. If Jermell Charlo returns to 154, that’ll be another great fight for Vergil.
“Look, he’s a big kid, so I think 154 would be ideal. Virgil Ortiz was going to fight for the world title, and he was in line to challenge Errol Spence; he was in line to challenge Crawford, the winner of that fight,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV.
“So, it’s unfortunate, but virtual Ortiz will come back stronger than ever. 154 is going to be his ideal weight to become a world champion very soon.”
Will 154 be enough for Vergil to make weight without fainting & dehydrating? It might not be. If Ortiz finds himself struggling to get down to 154, he’s going to need to move to 160, which isn’t as great a division, but he might not have any choice.
“Everything was great to the last second, everything was great, he looked amazing,” said De La Hoya when asked if he saw anything in Vergil Ortiz Jr’s camp for this fight that made him believe he would have physical problems.
“Stitch, his cut man, was saying, ‘Man, Vergil Ortiz looks better than ever.’ So we were all excited and in boxing, if you don’t hear any news, that’s always good news. So once we got that call, I kind of had a feeling something was up, something was going on. It’s unfortunate, but like I said, his health is first and then we’ll take it from there.
“Yeah, the doctor said that it was it was fatigue and dehydration but the doctors say it’s something that he can overcome absolutely,” said De La Hoya about Ortiz Jr.
