By: Sean Crose
Golden Boy rising junior middleweight star Vergil Ortiz stepped into the ring in Texas Saturday night to face the talented and well-regarded Erickson Lubin in a fight for an interim title. Although Ortiz was clearly the favorite walking in Lubin was the kind of fighter one simply couldn’t brush off or take lightly. This was especially true if – like Ortiz – a fighter was looking to rise up the ranks. It may not have been a super-sized main event for a Texas boxing card, but Ortiz versus Lubin certainly made for a night of quality boxing (at least on paper).
Yet it shouldn’t have been surprising that the fight ended in the second round, yet it somehow was. Ortiz had been hammering on his man on the ropes throughout the first round and most of the second. Ortiz really turned up the heat and started landing repeated power shots when the ref, seeing that Lubin wasn’t responding like he should, stepped in and wisely stopped the fight. It was a brilliant, if not brief performance from Ortiz the kind that boxing fans are apt to love. Make no mistake about it, Ortiz is a scary man indeed. He also has skill to match with this considerable power. Any fighter who takes this man lightly does so at his own risk.
“I just capitalized on his mistakes,” Ortiz said afterward. “The adjustments I made were just be cautious. That’s it.” Indeed Ortiz oozed confidence. “I’m only going to get better.” To make things even more interesting, Jaron Boots Ennis entered the ring and made it clear along with Ortiz that a major fight was in order. “It’s the best fight in boxing,” said Ennis before each fighter engaged in smack talk. Should this fight go down, it will be one worth looking forward to…a battle where the best is fighting the best.
