Vergil Ortiz Got Hard Fought Stoppage Saturday Night

Unbeaten welterweight Contender Vergil Ortiz got the expected test many thought he would Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas. However, he still pulled through for a 17th consecutive knockout to begin his career and put himself in position for World Title contention coming up.

Ortiz scored a 7th round TKO stoppage over former Junior Welterweight World Champion, Maurice Hooker, in the Golden Boy Promotions main event televised by DAZN streaming,

THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED. ✨ pic.twitter.com/tKa7ia0ZBY

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 21, 2021

Ortiz was clearly in a battle and even though he had quicker hands and big punches, Hooker was able to land some on him as the fight wore on. In fact, Hooker seemed to daze the twenty-two-year-old Texan in the fourth round with a hard right of his own in the bout held at the Dickies arena with several thousand fans present.

However, to his credit, Ortiz continued to put the pressure on after the fourth by scoring, especially with lead right hands and eventually, wore down the man who had only lost once professionally, Hooker. He even dropped Hooker with a quick hard right, left, and then another right combo late in the 6th round.

Then, he put Hooker to his knees with a hard right hand late in the 7th round and Hooker looked at his right arm in pain and told the ref he was unable to continue. DAZN analyst Sergio Mora speculated immediately that he thought Hooker had dislocated his elbow.

However, post fight Hooker said that his right hand actually “popped” just before the big punch from Ortiz.

None-the-less the crowd on hand was not happy and was booing loudly at Hooker to which he made an double obscene gesture towards the crowd. Then, he left the interview with DAZN’s Chris Mannix immediately after,

Maurice Hooker wasn't happy with the fans booing him ? pic.twitter.com/pDyBMnyKUr

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 21, 2021

For his part Ortiz made clear post-fight that he would love a shot at unbeaten WBO Welterweight Champion, Terence Crawford. However, Crawford is regarded as one of the top 5 pound-for-pound fighters in the sport and more than likely won’t take on Ortiz before the end of this year at the earliest. Crawford was at ringside Saturday in Ft. Worth.

Still, that didn’t stop Golden Boy Chief, Oscar De La Hoya, from taking to social media to reach out to Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum about making a possible Crawford – Ortiz fight a reality.

@terencecrawford have @BobArum call me

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) March 21, 2021

And, as most observers correctly point out, Ortiz needs to be more polished and even though he was victorious with another KO Saturday, he was hit a lot.

And, that means Oritz still has some work to do before being in with world-class competition like Crawford or unified Welterweight Champion, Errol Spence, down the road.