Vergil Ortiz Jr.'s next move has been one of interest for boxing fans since the Texas native defeated Serhii Bohachuk for the WBC interim super welterweight championship in August, and this week he shed some light on who he'd like to step into the ring with.
Ortiz has gone undefeated since turning professional in 2016, and the 26-year-old wants to continue his upward ascent in the sport by going up against the biggest names possible.
On Thursday, Ortiz spoke to DAZN's Ade Oladipo in Riyadh ahead of this weekend's Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez vs. Chris Billam-Smith fight, which can be seen live and free on DAZN. The topic of conversation was Ortiz's preferred opponents, and he listed off a trio of fighters he'd like to square off with — all of whom are current champions.
"So there's three," Ortiz said. "We've got [Terence] Crawford, obviously. I've been asking for that fight for a while now. I think he's a great fighter and I would like to test myself against him. He's a great fighter, very talented. Very hardworking, too.
"Then we got [Sebastian] Fundora, big respect to him. I just saw him — I was doing an interview right now, he said 'what's up' to me in the interview. He's a cool guy. That'd be a very good fight as well."
And the third fighter on Ortiz's list?
"There's one that people have been looking for, he's not at 154. It's 'Boots' (IBF welterweight champion Jaron Ennis)," he said.
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