Vergil Ortiz Jr. Stops Maurice Hooker In Seventh Round, Wants Terence Crawford Next
Vergil Ortiz Jr. picked up a massive win on Saturday night as he beat Maurice Hooker by TKO in the seventh round.
Ortiz dominated the fight from start to finish and dropped Hooker twice en route to a seventh round stoppage with the division’s top two fighters in unbeaten titlists Errol Spence and Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford in attendance.
Throughout the fight, Ortiz Jr. was getting chants from the crowd and thought he would end the fight to the body. He ended up punching Hooker in his elbow and it dislocated it.
“I thought I was going to finish him with a body shot,” Ortiz Jr. told BoxingScene.com of the fight-ending sequence. “I started investing into the body and it got the job done.”
After the first knockdown, Virgil Ortiz Jr. knew it was game over for Hooker as the young up-and-comer says Hooker didn’t want to be there anymore.
“I could tell the first time that I dropped him, that he didn’t want to get back up,” insisted Ortiz of the 6th round knockdown. “He was already demoralized.”
After the win, Ortiz Jr. made it clear he wants Bud Crawford next. Although some don’t think he is ready for that kind of fight, he wants the opportunity.
“I would love that opportunity,” Ortiz Jr. told DAZN’s Chris Mannix of a possible world title shot against Crawford, Hooker’s stablemate. “Crawford is possibly the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world — definitely Top 2 — so if they give me that opportunity, I’m looking at you, Bud, I’m looking at you. If you want to make this happen, I’m more than willing to do it. I don’t care if I’m ready or not. I want that fight.”
Would you like to see Virgil Ortiz Jr. vs Terence Crawford next after Ortiz stopped Hooker in the seventh round?
