Junior middleweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr 23-0 (23) wants to get some rounds in but instead only got 159 seconds of work as he folded Thomas Dulorme 26-7-1 (17) in half with a body shot at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California on Saturday night.
The 26-year-old Texan has now boxed less than two rounds after illness and injury sidelined him for almost a year-and-a-half.
The heavy-handed technician will now move on to the toughest fight of his career when he clashes with former WBO 154-pound champion Tim Tszyu 24-1 (17) at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California on August 3.
“He was coming with everything,” Ortiz said. “I can’t explain how I know when to land a shot like that, I can just feel it. I knew it was over, he made a sound and the way he fell.
“We sparred like seven years ago and a lot has changed. I was a kid back then. It’s an honour to share the ring with him. I feel like everything is where it needs to be.
“I know you’re watching this fight, Tim Tszyu. Just know I’m ready! I just want to fight the best. I don’t know why, they bring me opponents and I knock them out.”
In as interview with Sean Zittel’s YouTube channel, Ortiz warned fans not to get too excited about his latest knockout.
“I just saw it. He left the window open a little too long and I just took it. That’s really it. There was nothing special about it. I didn’t throw it hard. It was just perfectly placed,” Ortiz said.
“My last fight, I came out blazing. This fight, I thought I’m going to take my time.
“I’m not going to put all my power behind my punches and see what lands. One of the punches that landed clean got the job done.”
The fight against Tszyu was announced early last week. The 29-year-old Australian lost his world title by split decision to late replacement Sebastian Fundora 21-1-1 (13) last month.
The six-foot-six Californian southpaw opened up a nasty cut on Tszyu’s scalp with an unintentional elbow late in the second round that forced the champion to fight through a mask of blood for the rest of the contest before the challenger secured the win with scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 112-116. Fundora also picked up the vacant WBC strap with the win.
Ortiz says he know what Tszyu brings to the table and is expecting a firefight.
“I already have an idea of how the fight is going to go down,” said Ortiz. “It’s going to be World War III, but it’s going to be tactical. We don’t just throw all the soldiers out there and let them fight.”
Ortiz added that he still has more homework to do on Tszyu to work out a plan to beat him.
“It’s a very tough fight,” he said. “Those fighters are very difficult to predict like that. We’ll study him and see what we got to do and what we got to work on.”
