Vergil Ortiz Jr continues to bide his time in fighting for a world title, and he defends his interim WBC super welterweight title against Erickson Lubin at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday.
Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy promote Ortiz Jr vs Lubin and DAZN televise live worldwide.
Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) had a busy 2024 after a lay-off of over a year, and blasted out Fredrick Lawson and Thomas Dulorme in a round each to keep his perfect knockout record.
The Texan, who has been linked with a showdown with Jaron Ennis, then went 12 rounds and the distance for the first time as a professional last August, and had to get off the canvas twice before taking a tight majority decision win against Serhii Bohachuk in Las Vegas to take the interim WBC crown.
The 27-year-old was last out in February, where he was again tested and again had to the distance, winning on the cards against Israil Madrimov in Riyadh.
Former world title challenger, Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs) comes next for Ortiz.
The Florida man knocked out inside a round by Jermell Charlo for the WBC title back in 2017.
‘The Hammer’ won six on the spin to get back into the world title mix, but retired after nine rounds after swapping knockdowns with Sebastian Fundora in 2022.
Two wins followed before the 30-year-old was out of the ring for over 18 months, returning in May to stop Ardreal Holmes Jr in the 11th round of their meeting.
Prediction: Ortiz will want to keep on track in his quest for a world title shot at WBC champion, Sebastian Fundora and he can take a stoppage win by the halfway mark here.
Fulghum faces Stevens
Two ten-rounders head the undercard.
Super middleweight hope, Darius Fulghum returns from defeat to face David Stevens.
Fulghum (14-1, 12 KOs) went 12 rounds for the first time in May, but was defeated by just two points on all three cards by Bektemir Melikuziev, while Stevens (15-2, 10 KOs) has lost two of his last four, going down by split decision to Melikuziev last November.
The 25-year-old is coming off a 10-round points win over the previously unbeaten Petr Khamukov in June.
Prediction: Fulghum can get back on track with a points win in this one.
Safar meets Miller
Swedish cruiserweight Robin Sirwan Safar (18-0, 13 KOs) is in a battle of unbeatens, and he should outscore Derick Miller Jr (18-0, 10 KOs) in their 10 round clash.
Remaining Undercard
In an 10-rounder at middleweight, Amari Jones (14-0, 12 KOs) can score another early win, this time against Shady Gamhour (14-2, 9 KOs)
The sole eight-rounder should see Eric Priest (16-0, 8 KOs) an early winner against Esneiker Correa (16-6-2, 14 KOs) in their middleweight encounter.
Heavyweight novice Joshua Edwards (4-0, 4 KOs) should win his scheduled six-rounder against Zeno Vooris (5-1, 5 KOs) early on.
In other six round contests, Figo Ramirez Gonzalez (9-0-1, 4 KOs) can outscore Oziel Rangel Aradillas (6-4, 4 KOs) at super bantamweight and Javier Meza (4-0, 2 KOs) can win inside the distance against Joshua Briones Garcia (3-4-1, 2 KOs) at super lightweight.
In a welterweight four-rounder, Samuel Torres (3-0, 2 KOs) should halt Ricardo Elizalde (0-1).
