Exciting knockout artist Vergil Ortiz Jr 13-0 (13) has confirmed he will campaign as a welterweight going forward.
Ortiz Jr fought his first eleven bouts at junior welterweight, with his last outing at 140-pounds being a second-round knockout of Roberto Ortiz on the undercard of the rematch between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas last September.
The 21-year-old from Dallas has fought twice since at the welterweight limit including a third-round knockout of former world title challenger Mauricio Herrera on the undercard of the Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs unification bout in Las Vegas in May.
In his third bout at 147-pounds, Ortiz Jr will face Antonio Orozco 28-1 (17) at the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas on Saturday night. Orozco’s lone loss was on points to reigning WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez last year.
“I’m staying at 147. I’m a welterweight now,” Ortiz Jr said to Fighthub. “I would never fight Jose [Ramirez]. Those other belts are spoken for right now. As soon as they’re freed up with the World [Boxing Super] Series, I’m pretty sure they’re going to meet up with Jose. By the time that happens, I won’t be able to make 140 no more.”
Ortiz Jr insists he is ready, willing and able to face the top names in the welterweight division, including WBA champion Manny Pacquiao and IBF boss Errol Spence Jr. Terence Crawford holds the WBO strap and Shawn Porter is the WBC titleholder.
“So I’m going to move up. Oh yeah,” said Ortiz. “I’m not here to fight these B and C-class fighters. I want to be the top guy. It’s only one weight class up.”
 has confirmed he will campaign as a welterweight going forward.){kind=link}