WBA Gold welterweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr.(15-0, 15 KOs) overpowered Brad “King” Solomon (28-2, 9 KOs) and stopped him in round five on Friday night at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. Ortiz dropped Solomon with a hard jab in round four. Ortiz battered Solomon to a knee in round five then put him on the deck again to end it. Time was 2:22.
“I have to give him [Solomon] some credit,” said Ortiz. “He’s difficult to figure out and made me use my brain. I tried to take my time, and not rush things. I had to utilize my jab, figure out the right time to throw a punch. I think I tripped with him with my foot, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He came to fight.
“I shouldn’t be chasing on the ropes like that. He let his guard now. Luckily, I did throw the right punch and hurt him. I knew he would be a tough cookie to break. Luckily, I have a good team behind me and all my smarts. I felt I was very patient, and needed to pick it up, can’t lay low. I did a good job. I would say high B or A on this one.”
Former WBA super featherweight champion Alberto “Explosivo” Machado (22-2, 18 KOs) officially made his debut at 135 pounds with a second round KO over 2008 Olympian Luis Porozo (14-2, 7 KOs). Time was 2:59. Porozo down three times, all from body shots.
Olympian super middleweight silver medalist Bektemir Melikuziev (4-0, 3 KOs) won a shutout ten round unanimous decision over Vaughn Alexander (15-4, 9 KOs) to claim the vacant WBA Continental Americas title. Scores were 100-90 3x. First full distance fight for Melikuziev.
Welterweight Alexis “Lex” Rocha (15-0, 10 KOs) was victorious when Roberto Valenzuela (17-2, 16 KOs) couldn’t continue after five rounds. Valenzuela launched a massive assault that hurt Rocha in round two. But Rocha weathered the storm and punished Valenzuela the rest of the way.
NABF super lightweight champion Luis Feliciano (14-0, 8 KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Herbert “Ace” Acevedo (16-2-1, 6 KOs). Feliciano dropped Acevedo in round three en route to 100-89, 99-90, 97-92 on the scorecards.
Damn, that guy has only four fights and is fighting ten rounders?
It’s time for Ortiz to face better competition, he can’t pull off a Canelo forever.
Saw a few weaknesses but they’re far outweighed by his defense, power and movement.
Interesting to see what he can do against a power puncher with speed or a with speedster with defensive skills.
He just did
Juan: dude…hes only 21 .. what’s the rush. Its not like hes fighting nobodies. He is getting better and better opposition. I think their moving him at a good pace. He is improving with every fighter he faces. This was a great test for him. Im jus excited to see his next fight.
Juan Valdez, what’s your beef with canelo? Let it go man! He’s on your mouth more than on his girlfriend’s. If you are going to comment on ortiz, give him credit for how good he is, he is growing in boxing and a lot of us enjoy his fights and if you like boxing you should too. If not, go make your comments on the gossip magazines. Ortiz is respectful towards other opponents unlike other loud mouth fighters. So if you don’t like canelo, then don’t watch his fights. Plain and simple. Keep it nice and clean. I like to read the comments about the fights even if I don’t agree with all of you who comment here, but one thing for sure, I respect all of the opinions. Have a good day!
And what weaknesses did you see ? I’d love your professional opinion.
— Vergil only 21 ahead of 21 yr old Ray Leonard who was still ensconced in his pro BigBoy trainers.
Verg KOing out solid fighters never before cracked and breaking into the Big Time in style. He easily cleans out half the Haymon stable of welts, but does Haymon dare that demolition?
that was a very good boxing card. ortiz is an explosive, knock out artist,but also he need to step it up.
Ortiz is the real deal and is ready for a major step up. Against Solomon, he was patient, used his jab consistently, and was out-landing Solomon on a 3 to 1 ratio. He’s ready for any of the top contenders but probably needs a little more seasoning before he fights the Porters and Garcias of the boxing game.
Ortiz has improved greatly since the first time I saw him fight. He was a little raw in his early fights but now displays poise, a tight defense, and boxing skills to go along with his punching power. He gets a lot of leverage on his shots and is accurate with them. He also moves well and maneuvers around his opponents easily to land shots from different angles.
With Robert Garcia in his corner, he will go all the way to the top of the welterweight division after a couple more of fights. I can’t wait to see him again.
Ortiz is too strong to be fighting weaker and light punching fighters. maybe his team knows something about him that we don’t. I see a tough kid you just plows through and overpowers his opponent. He swings for the fences way too much. One of his delusional fans and another post said they need to make Crawford vs Ortiz next. It is talk like that that leads me to believe that hardcore aficionados are in a scant minority on this site. Ortiz would literally be made to look a fool against Bud Crawford. I would actually like to see Ortiz face Crawford’s victim from last night and would make that at the very least a 50/50 fight.