Vergil Ortiz Jr may not be in action this weekend, but there is still a lot of noise being made around the 23-year-old and his future.
Ortiz was set to face Michael McKinson on Saturday night before he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis at the start of fight week. As a result, the fight was cancelled.
But while fans will be dissapointed not to see whether Ortiz could register a 19th successive knockout, his promoter Oscar De La Hoya believes he is now ready to face one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, WBO welterweight champion.
Speaking on the latest instalment of JABS, Sergio Mora admired this ambition, but believes Ortiz's management team needs to be realistic when it comes to a world title challenge.
"You always want to hear a young, red hot prospect and contender like Vergil Ortiz saying he’s ready for the best," Mora said.
"You want your fighter to believe he’s ready for the absolute best, it’s up to his team and his management team, and promoter to hold him back and say ‘Not yet, you’re 23 years old and you’ve got the whole world ahead of you’.
"I mean it could potentially be there next year.
"Right now we know who Bud Crawford wants, he wants Errol Spence, he’s pound-for-pound number one, number two, number three wherever you have him.
"Vergil Ortiz hasn’t won a world championship yet, but he’s a championship fighter, he’s already proved that with Kavaliauskas and Maurice Hooker, but is he elite?
"I don’t think he’s there just yet."
Chris Mannix meanwhile thinks Ortiz is more than ready to face Crawford following two wins against two gatekeepers of the welterweight division.
"He’s ready," Mannix claimed
"He’s got 18 professional fights, he’s got 18 knockouts, he has beaten two gatekeepers in the last couple of years, he is as ready as he’s going to be for Terence Crawford right now."