Vergil Ortiz Jr. will narrowly avoid a full-year layoff. Oscar De La Hoya tells Dan Rafael that the welterweight blue-chipper, who hasn’t seen action since an August 14th dismantling of Egidijus Kavaliauskas will return to the ring this coming August 6th.
The opponent and location have yet to be finalized; all we know at this point is that it’ll air on DAZN.
Ortiz (18-0, 18 KO) was slated to face fellow unbeaten Michael McKinson this past March in what was a WBO final eliminator in all but name, only to withdraw on fight week due to illness. Though initial speculation was that he actually pulled out due to weight issues, Ortiz himself revealed that he’d been suffering from rhabdomyolysis for the last two weeks of training camp.
That’s when your muscle fibers liquidate into your bloodstream, for those unaware. Fun times.
Time to speculate on who he’ll fight. On paper, there’s nothing stopping them from just rebooking the McKinson fight. The Brit doesn’t have anything scheduled at the moment and will have had plenty of time to recuperate from his easy decision over last-minute opponent Alex Martin.
It’s also probably too quick a turnaround for him to fight Jaron Ennis, who sits right behind him in the WBC rankings and right above him in the IBF. Would be a hell of a fight, though.