Is Israil Madrimov A Leper In Boxing? His Future Looks Bleak

Israil Madrimov may find it difficult for him to come back from his latest defeat against WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. last Saturday night.

The former WBA 154-lb champion Madrimov (10-2-1, 7 KOs) suffered his second consecutive loss, losing a 12-round unanimous decision to the unbeaten Vergil Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  Ortiz Jr. won by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 117-111. It’s a fight that Madrimov could have won if he’d fought smart and gone into the match healthy. He still exposed Vergil Jr. as a flawed fighter who won’t go further before he’s beaten.

Strategic Errors

Whatever chance Madrimov, 29, had of winning, he threw it out the window by coming into the fight less than 100%, coming off an illness that he says left him weakened. In hindsight, Madrimov should have canceled the fight, but he didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

He made things more difficult for himself by moving nonstop in the first six rounds, causing him to gas after the midpoint. Madrimov appeared to be up 5-1 after six, but the judges assigned to the fight weren’t giving him credit for dominating the easy-to-hit Ortiz Jr. early on.

This defeat will make it tough for Madrimov to get important fights unless Turki Alalshikh can help. He’s too good to be used as a B-side opponent by other promoters who are trying to develop their fighters. He almost beat Terence Crawford and Vergil Jr. That basically makes Madrimov a leper to be avoided.

“Where does Madrimov go? He’s now lost two fights in a row,” said Simon Jordan to talkSport Boxing about former WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov after his defeat last Saturday night against Vergil Ortiz Jr. in Riyadh.

Without Turki, Madrimov will need to slog his way through the contender ranks, likely ignored by any of the top 10 guys, and forced to fight bottom feeders. Fighting those types of guys will make it extremely tough for Madrimov to get pushed up the rankings quickly unless his promoter, Eddie Hear,n can push hard for him as he does with the other fighters he likes.

“It’s a difficult one because he’s a tough guy to beat, and that’s the problem,” said Spencer Oliver about Madrimov. “When you look at the prospects coming through, the kids are [or their promoters] are going to go, ‘Really? I don’t want none of that.’ He’s a tough guy to pin down.

“He’s got that European style where he just keeps hitting, and the miles he must have done in that ring, by the way, was insane. He was nonstop the whole time. Tactically, he had the spot on, but it was going to be a tough road back for him.

“No one is going to want to go near him because it’s the sort of style that makes everyone look bad, and you don’t want to go there unless you have to go there. Credit to Ortiz Jr. for taking the fight because it was always going to be a tricky one, and I thought he excelled,” said Oliver.