Dallas Texas' Junior Welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. (12-0, 12 KO's) had to wait for this fight with Jesus Valdez (23-5-1, 12 KO's) because his last bout was cancelled, but he hasn't lost a step.
His precise punches against Ortiz were calculated and landed with authority. In the very first round, when the fighters were in close, he landed an uppercut and followed it up with a right hand. Ortiz also was going to the body with left hooks and also letting his right hand go to the head of Valdez. Valdez was only able to land two body punches at the end of the round but they had no effect. Valdez raised his hands at the end of the round, but it was clear that he had lost it.
Ortiz spars with Jose Ramirez and Brandon Rios and is a stablemate of Mikey Garcia under the tutelage of Robert Garcia, and you could see it shown against the southpaw Valdez.
Speaking of southpaws, this was his first fight against a pro with a southpaw and he said "Fighting a southpaw for the first time as a pro is the same for me, but the range is different. I just had to make and execute a game plan. I thought it would go longer, but I’m so happy to have fought in Texas!”
In the beginning of round two, when Valdez was on the ropes, Ortiz connected with an overhand right and then followed it up with a left hook to the body. Ortiz kept up the pressure and then landed another hard left hook to the body and a quick uppercut. He followed that up with another left hook and even landed a short right hook that landed to the chest of Valdez. Ortiz then landed one last left hook to the head to end the round against the veteran of Mexico.
Ortiz continued to walk down Valdez at the beginning of the third round, and landed a hard body shot. Valdez then landed his own body shot, but it was followed by a hard right hand to his head from the prowling Ortiz. The wear and tear on Valdez' face was becoming apparent from all the landing or glancing shots from the sharpshooter Valdez.
At this point in the fight, Valdez had made it past the the third round, which is the furthest all other fighters had made it against Ortiz. As the fourth round started, Valdez missed a punch and hit the mat, but it was not a knockdown. Valdez was holding his own up to this point, but Ortiz was keeping up the pressure and shooting his jab to the face of his tough Mexican opponent.
In the last thirty seconds of this round, Ortiz landed a big right hand that made Valdez' head shoot back. Ortiz followed that up with several more right hands that drew first blood to the face of Valdez as he headed to the corner.
From the video replay in the Toyota Arena, it showed that Valdez had a huge cut under the eyelid of his left eye. At the middle off the round, the referee asked the doctor to review the cut because Valdez was now bleeding profusely.
When the fight continued, Ortiz landed a big right hand that shook Valdez' head backward again and then followed it up with an uppercut. Time was stopped again with thirty seconds left in the round to look at the cut and the fight continued with Valdez' face completely covered with blood. Ortiz immediately went after the bloodied Valdez until the final seconds of the round.
The tough Valdez fought a good fight but he was not able to keep pace with the sharpshooter Ortiz and the fight was called off before the beginning of the sixth round.
Ortiz went on to win the fight by TKO to continue his knockout streak and a possible title fight before the end of the year.
After the fight, InTheRing.net spoke to Ortiz and asked him how he felt coming into this fight since his last fight was cancelled and he said "I was very anxious for two reasons, I hadn't fought since September because of the cancellation of the fight and I was fighting in Texas again for the first time, which was about a year and a half." "I was excited to fight and get in there."
He went to say that "Training was great in camp for this fight since he last fought in October of last year and part of it was just "staying sharp" and using my experience, including good sparring with Josesito Lopez and Jose Ramirez.
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