Podcast: Interview with Vergil Ortiz, who ends long layoff Saturday
Health issues have sidelined him since August 2022
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With the New Year’s holiday and not much going on this past weekend we did not tape a recap episode but I did interview Vergil Ortiz Jr. on Tuesday afternoon. He is set to return from a 17-month layoff due to various health issues that saw a highly anticipated fight with WBA “regular” welterweight titlist Eimantas Stanionis get postponed twice and then canceled after it fell through for a third time when Ortiz passed out during fight week due to dehydration trying to make weight.
Ortiz returns on Saturday to headline the first notable fight card of 2024, a Golden Boy show on DAZN in Las Vegas. He will face Fredrick Lawson as both men move up to junior middleweight.
We covered various topics in a candid interview in which Ortiz’s frustration about his layoff was obvious.
We discussed the state of his health; what happened during fight week last summer that caused the Stanionis fight to be canceled a few days beforehand; his frustrations over his health issues and not fighting; his reunion with trainer Robert Garcia; and what an ideal 2024 looks like for him in terms of number of fights and caliber of fights.
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Ortiz photo: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy Promotions
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