Ortiz Jr Finishes Hooker in the 7th
Photo by Omar Vega / Al Dia
Vergil Ortiz Jr remains unbeaten after one of the best boxing fights of 202, so far he has finished Maurice Hooker in the 7th round after landing an overhand right which prompted Hooker to take a knee. On his knee, Hooker told the referee he hurt his arm thus stopping the contest with Ortiz upping his knockout count to 17. Which is a perfect 100% finishing rate for the 22-year-old.
In what was a very entertaining fight, Hooker proved to be Ortiz’s toughest test to date. Ortiz controlled the first couple of rounds but as the fight progressed so did Hooker’s confidence. Hooker looked a phenomenal array of hits in the 4th round, but in the 5th round Ortiz completely changed his gameplan. He began to stick to his longer opponent like glue. Inside the pocket both men unloaded vicious body punches but it seemed Ortiz was getting the better of the inside exchanges.
All of this proceeded to a 6th round knockdown for Ortiz as an uppercut and straight right stunned and hurt Hooker, crumbling him to the canvas. The hurt Hooker went on to exchange with Ortiz surviving the final seconds of the round.
But, Hooker was not as lucky in the next round as right away both men met in the middle to exchange heavy blows. An overhand right by Ortiz landed with Hooker turning around and dropping to one knee with Ortiz’s streak of finishing his opponents by the 7th round remaining intact.
After the fight, Ortiz was asked about possibly taking a fight against the unbooked Terence “Bud” Crawford. He responded by stating, “I don’t care if I’m ready or not I want that fight.”
Crawford has been linked to fellow welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. for many years but for now that fight seems to have fizzled. Could Ortiz have better luck in booking this fight? Only time will tell if we see a future unification bout between the two undefeated welterweights.
In other results, Seniesa “Superbad” Estrada became the new WBA women’s minimumweight champion with a flawless performance against Anabel Ortiz by unanimous decision.
Estrada continues to show she can be a star for Golden Boy Promotions as she won with relative ease as she pummeled the former champion. She showed off her boxing skills by constantly switching stances to confuse Ortiz.
“Superbad” dropped Ortiz in the 2nd round and never looked back, dominating the one sided affair from start to finish.
This was a successful showing by DAZN with both Estrada and Ortiz Jr putting on entertaining bouts in their title fights.
DAZN will be back on March 27 with the highly-anticipated heavyweight rematch between Dillan Whyte and Alexander Povetkin for the WBC interim heavyweight.