Vergil Ortiz Jr. will have a complex puzzle to solve in his fight against the former WBA Junior middleweight champion this Saturday, February 22nd, on Turki Al-Sheikh’s card in Riyadh. Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) gained a lot of experience from his recent fight against Terence Crawford, pushing the aging fighter to his physical limits in Los Angeles in a razor-close defeat.

(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)

Madrimov Too Skilled?

Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) will have to show more skills if he wants to hold onto his WBC interim 154-lb title against the more technically gifted and powerful Madrimov. What could work against Vergil Jr, 26, is he’s coming off a grueling fight against Serhii Bohachuk on August 10th last year, and now he’s jumping straight into an even more challenging match against Madrimov.

Although we saw Vergil Jr. quickly figure out and destroy the slick British boxer Michael McKinson in 2022, Madrimov is on a different level than that guy. He has size, skills, and Golovkin-like power, making him a formidable opponent.

Ortiz Jr. can’t just walk ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov down the way he did the light-hitting, frail McKinson and count on knocking him out. If he fights like that against Madrimov, he’ll get dropped repeatedly, as he did in his questionable 12-round majority decision win against Bohahuk. Let’s be honest. That was a loss for Vergil Ortiz Jr, but he was gifted a decision by the Nevada judges. He was dropped twice by Bohachuk and appeared to lose seven rounds, which should have made it a clear victory for the Ukrainian.

What made the whole fiasco even worse was Ortiz Jr. choosing not to give him a rematch. That said a lot about him. With Saturday’s Ortiz-Madrimov fight being staged in Riyadh, Vergil Jr. can’t count on the judges to bail him out if the fight is close. He’s going to need to fight a lot better than he did against Bohachuk, and he’s facing a harder-to-hit fighter with better single-punch power.

Ortiz Jr. Needs Plan B

If you saw what Madrimov did to Crawford’s face, you just know that the easy-to-hit Vergil Jr. is going to soak up a lot of punishment in this contest if he fights the way he normally does. The primitive style that Ortiz Jr. has gotten away with during his career will make him easy prey for Madrimov, who dominates those types of fighters.

Vergil Jr. would have been forced to change his style a long time ago if he’d fought better opposition and been competing at 154 since the beginning of his career. Ortiz Jr. is going to follow his old playbook of trying to out-punch Madrimov, but if that doesn’t work, he’ll need a plan B strategy.

🔸🔸🔶 Israil Madrimov 🔶🔸🔸

Madrimov is the former WBA JMW Champ, and his only loss/lost his strap was to none other than Bud Crawford.

Going into that fight, Crawford was riding one heck of a TKO/KO streak, and Madrimov managed to go the full 12th rds with Bud.

Ortiz,… https://t.co/nbj9ONpnFo pic.twitter.com/FJrvWpssk0

— About that Life (@aboutthatlifeko) February 16, 2025