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Vergil Ortiz Jr. will have to wait another day to launch his 2022 in-ring campaign.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Ortiz has fallen ill and was forced to withdraw from his upcoming bout with England’s Michael McKinson, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. The fallout comes just days ahead of the still scheduled March 19 DAZN event from USC Galen Center in Los Angeles.
ESPN.com boxing insider Mike Coppinger was first to reveal the development via social media.
A message left for event promoter Golden Boy Promotions went returned as this goes to publish.BoxingScene.com has learned, however, that efforts are being made to salvage the show and to secure a replacement opponent for McKinson (21-0, 2KOs) who was due to make his U.S. debut this weekend.
The undercard includes a ten-round welterweight battle between Blair ‘The Flair’ Cobbs (15-0-1, 10KOs) and Alexis Rocha (18-1, 12KOs). It remains unclear at this time whether the fight will become a makeshift main event or if McKinson will remain atop the bill.
Ortiz (18-0, 18KOs) was due to make his 2022 debut, which would also mark his first fight since parting ways with Robert Garcia. This past training camp was spent with Manny Robles, who joined Vergil Ortiz Sr. in training the rising welterweight contender.
Ortiz was without the direct services of Garcia for his last fight, an eighth-round knockout of Egidijus Kavaliauskus last August 14 in Frisco, Texas, near his Grand Prairie hometown. A scheduling conflict saw Joshua Franco with a fight that night as well, with Garcia opting to be in the corner of the secondary WBA junior bantamweight titlist on a Top Rank show in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Ortiz moved forward with father, Vergil Sr. taking the lead in the corner, with Eduardo Garcia and Robert Garcia Jr.—Robert’s father and son, respectively—assisting. The win marked the second and final fight of the year for Ortiz, who had hoped to fight a third time in 2021 only for such plans to never materialize.
There were also hopes for this particular fight to headline a January 22 DAZN show, as suggested by Golden Boy president Eric Gomez during the WBC Convention last November.
The sanctioning body sought to order a title eliminator between Ortiz and David Avanesyan, with the winner to become the mandatory challenger to the WBC welterweight title held by Errol Spence Jr. (27-0, 21KOs) who also owns the IBF belt. Ortiz informed the WBC of existing plans for Ortiz’s next fight in hopes of revising the Avanesyan fight afterward. The January 22 date never materialized, with Ortiz-McKinson instead moved to March 19.
An untimely—and undisclosed—illness encountered will now leave Ortiz out of the ring even longer and with Golden Boy scrambling to keep the balance of this weekend’s show intact.
This is a developing story…
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox