Vergil Ortiz, Jr. (13-0, 13 KO's), a highly touted top 140 pound prospect from Dallas, Texas fought on the Co-Main event of the Canelo/Jacobs middleweight fight on DAZN in Las Vegas against veteran Mauricio Herrera (24-9 7 KO'S).
Ortiz took full advantage of being on the spotlight in front of millions of boxing fans on the DAZN platform and continued his winning and knockout streak to thirteen. That is, an undefeated record and thirteen wins in a row by knockout!
In this fight, Ortiz, who normally fights at 140 pounds, moved up to 147 to fight Mauricio Herrera, a true welterweight. Herrera is best known for getting robbed against Danny Garcia five years ago, which would have made him the true WBC and WBA Super Lightweight champion.
In what I thought would be a competitive fight, it seemed apparent from the first round, that the broken Herrera was not what he was five years ago. Against the hungry Ortiz, for some reason Herrera fought most of the first round and eventually the entire fight with his left hand down by his waist. This appeared to be a tactic just waiting for disaster against the quick handed Ortiz.
In the second round, as in the first round, Ortiz always kept both hands up protecting himself as opposed to Herrera who continued to fight with his left down by his side. Ortiz then began to find his range and was landing crisp and hard punches to the head and body of Herrera.
Ortiz, who is trained in Dallas by his Father Vergil Ortiz, Sr. and Hector Beltran, a former prize fighter from Dallas, had his final training camp for this fight as well as other previous camps with world renowned trainer Robert Garcia.
As the second round continued, the up and coming junior welterweight Ortiz then landed a huge overhand right which wobbled Herrera at the last ten seconds of the round and he followed that with a flurry of punches and landed a left hook that put Herrera on the canvas just as the bell sounded.
At such a young age, this is the fifth time being on an undercard of Canelo, which even he said surprises him. But this time, he was moved up as the Co-Main Event and was able to be seen televised on a world wide stage.
In his training camps he spars with the likes of Mikey Garcia and Lucas Mattise.
At the beginning of the third round, Ortiz landed a snapping left hook that shook Herrera's back and then he landed a riveting right hand that knocked Herrera out on his feet. Herrera fell to the canvas in slow motion at the 29th second of the round and he was out cold.
This punch was similar to Teofimo Lopez' first round destruction of Mason Menard, who was also out on his feet before hitting the canvas, when he appeared at the Star in Frisco.
Although Ortiz moved up in weight for this fight, he plans on returning to 140 in hopes of getting a world title shot against any of the champions of that division.
After the fight and in the ring, Ortiz called out Maurice Hooker 26 (26-0, 17 KO's), the current WBO Junior Welterweight champion of the world, who is also from Dallas, Texas.