Vergil Ortiz Jr earned a spot on the undercard of the August 3rd Madrimov-Crawford LA card after defeating Puerto Rican Thomas Dulorme on Saturday, April 27th at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California, with the two fighters headlining the Golden Boy card in a non-title middleweight bout. The event also saw Jose Ramirez make an appearance, and a women’s flyweight title bout saw American unified flyweight champion Marlen Esparza lose all her titles to Argentinian fighter Gabriela Celeste Alaniz.
The bout between Vergil Ortiz Jr (21-0, 21 KO’s) and Thomas Dulorme (26-7-1, 17 KO’s) was originally set to occur at super welterweight/junior middleweight, but both fighters weighed in a little above the 154 lbs weight limit which forced their match to become a fight at middleweight instead. As a result, both fighters made their debut at 160 lbs for the first time of their careers.
The match only lasted one round, with Vergil Ortiz refusing to allow Dulorme―who had not fought since July of 2022―the means to shake off his ring rust by pressuring the Puerto Rican from the start of the bell. Dulorme was incapable of mustering up much of a defense and was eventually knocked down in the last half minute of the fight. After Dulorme failed to beat the referee’s countdown, Vergil Ortiz was ruled the winner by knockout, making it the 21st victory in a row that he has won by knockout or stoppage.
With Vergil Ortiz having built up some momentum and maintained his 100% KO ratio, he will be heading into an August 3rd bout against former WBO 154 lbs champion Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KO’s)―who will be coming off of his March 30th loss to Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s)―as arguably the more favored fighter.
Though Tszyu did suffer a split-decision loss to Fundora, his defeat was widely attributed to the gruesome cut he suffered during their match, and Tszyu will be expected to be at his best on August 3rd; which might make him a favorite or only a slim underdog against Ortiz, rather than vice-versa, due to his experience as a world champion.
On the undercard of the Golden Boy Promotions event, a new unified champion has emerged in the women’s flyweight division after former WBA, WBC and WBO champion Marlen Esparza (14-2, 1 KO’s) initially lost all her titles on the scale after coming in overweight by 2 lbs. With the belts subsequently becoming only available for Esparza’s opponent, Gabriela Celeste Alaniz (15-1, 6 KO’s), to win, the Argentinian took her opportunity with both hands to become the new unified champion after a split-decision (SD) through scores of 92-98, 97-93 and 96-94.
Last Saturday’s bout between Esparza and Alaniz was a rematch of their July 8th unification bout last year, with Esparza then winning by majority decision (MD) to retain her WBA and WBC titles, and gain Alaniz’ WBO belt. However, Alaniz has silenced all doubters by defeating Esparza, and can now look forward to a potential undisputed bout against IBF women’s flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora (13-0, 6 KO’s)―who like Esparza is considered a Golden Boy fighter since January this year.
Former 140 lbs world champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-1, 18 KO’s) continued on climbing the ladder against Cuban contender Rances Barthelemy (30-3-1, 15 KO’s) who he defeated soundly by unanimous decision (UD) with scorecards of 118-110, and 119-109 twice. The match appeared but a mere formality with Ramirez winning his rounds fairly easily by outlanding and outworking Barthelemy who appeared to have slight troubles adjusting to the pace of the match.
While Ramirez continues to be a top-rated contender at super lightweight, a title opportunity seems to still be on the periphery with all the 140 lbs champions having either recently fought, or set to fight. However, an opportunity against Ryan Garcia (25-1, 20 KO’s) might arrive as early as this year with Golden Boy founder Oscar De La Hoya having already attempted to match the two in the beginning of the year.
American former lightweight-turned-super-lightweight contender Oscar Duarte (27-2-1, 19 KO’s), who suffered a knockout defeat to Garcia last December, also returned to the ring against two-division champion and countryman Joseph Diaz (33-6-1, 15 KO’s). Though both fighters were coming off losses, it was Diaz who would prove unable to break his losing streak as he suffered a knockout defeat to Duarte in the 9th round of their 10-round scheduled bout.
For Diaz, his latest defeat marks the unfortunate downturn that his career after last holding and retaining his IBF 130 lbs title on February 13th, 2021, against Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov. Since then, Diaz has fought a total of seven times and lost five matches while only winning two. With his latest loss to Duarte being his first-ever defeat to come by way of knockout or stoppage, the American former world champion’s career appears to be on the brink of collapse; not made any easier with the fact he is fighting in a division full of contenders and champions that are a level or two above Duarte.
In comparison, Duarte’s career may feature a boost of sorts following his victory but a tough road lies ahead nonetheless with his path to title contention fraught with elite opponents who can easily stop any of his ambitions to become world champion.
