Vergil Ortiz showed that he is a player at 147, but is he ready for Terence Crawford?

Saturday was a day of declaration in the boxing world. Vergil Ortiz proved that he can stay with an established veteran and former world champion in Maurice Hooker, and continue to show the skills and strength that have made him one of boxing’s brightest young stars.

With a technical knockout in the 7th round, Ortiz put himself in a serious dispute for the title and spoke Terence Crawford’s name in his post-fight media interviews.

“This victory gives me more confidence,” said Ortiz, after the fight. “I believe in myself even more than ever that I am ready for a world title. I would love the opportunity to fight Terence Crawford. If I had a chance, I would take it. I don’t care if I am ready or not; I want that fight . “

Whether or not Ortiz is ready for ESPN’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter is a matter of debate, but Ortiz’s results so far in his career are impressive. With 17 knockouts in 17 fights, without ever having passed the seventh round, his ambitions are clear.

But Ortiz was not the only big winner on Saturday. Lawrence Okolie won a world cruiserweight title in his 16th professional fight, dispatching a former Krzystof Glowacki champion in the process. And after more than 500 days out of the ring, Artur Beterbiev continued his victories in a successful defense of his WBC and IBF world titles – pushing his record to 16-0 with 16 KOs.

So, what do these three victories mean? Ben Baby and Nick Parkinson share everything.

Baby: Vergil Ortiz is not quite ready for Terence Crawford – but he may be close

“Vergil is young and promising,” said Maurice Hooker, shortly after his defeat to Ortiz on Saturday. “But there are levels for that. He is good. But he is not ready for Terence Crawford. To be ready, he just needs to keep building. He will be a world champion someday.”

I have to agree with Hooker here: Ortiz is good and he will be world champion one day, but he may not be ready for Crawford yet. Hooker played Ortiz often enough to leave a mark and was able to hurt the 22-year-old by showing that, even in a defeat, he remains a very solid and fun welterweight. Give Ortiz credit for adjusting the fight to get to the body, but beating someone of Crawford’s caliber requires a very special performance.

Even though this fight is not necessarily advisable in the short term, there is a way for Ortiz to get Crawford in early 2022. If boxing policy can be resolved, Ortiz is ready for some of the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella welterweights. Ortiz wants a title fight in 2021, and who’s to say he’s not ready for current WBA world champion Yordenis Ugas, who won three straight wins after a loss to Shawn Porter in March 2019. If Ortiz can win that fight, and maybe take down someone like Danny Garcia or even a Josesito Lopez, he should be more than ready (and economically viable enough) for Crawford to seriously entertain the idea of ​​a fight.

Also, let’s not forget that, at some point, Crawford needs to start facing bigger names. The boxing world can talk about Errol Spence Jr.’s elusive fight as loudly as he wants, but in the here and now, Crawford desperately needs a fight against Shawn Porter if he hopes to maximize his career gains. Ortiz is building credibility quickly, and if there is a boxer with a name who is really willing to step in and fight Crawford, he is in no position to say no to a fight that makes sense. Crawford is also very good and talented to not retire with some remarkable victories over some big names that have earned him good paydays.

If the opportunity is too big for the two fighters to lose, there is no reason why this should not happen.

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Parkinson: Beterbiev dominated and got some necessary rounds. What should be the next one?

At 36 and with such a fanatic style for fans, Beterbiev needs the big fights and the spotlight without further delay. After 519 days between fights, Beterbiev showed that he did not lose any of his final punishing power in the 10-round strike over Adam Deines on Saturday. He keeps Beterbiev, who holds the WBC and IBF world titles, as the No. 1 fighter in the light heavyweight division, and a unification fight seems likely later this year.

Perhaps the fight that most fans want to see – and have wanted to see for a while now – is Beterbiev against fellow Russian Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs), who defends his WBA version of the world title against British light -weight Craig Richards on May 1.

But another easier title unification fight is Beterbiev against the vacant WBO title fight between New Yorker Joe Smith Jr. (26-3, 21 KOs) and Russian Maxim Vlasov (45-3 , 26 KOs) on April 10 Top Rank promotes Smith and Beterbiev, making this fight more likely, assuming that Smith – defeated by Bivol two years ago – wins Vlasov.

Another Russian, Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 37, who was once a feared world champion and No. 1 in the division, is not the strength he was, has problems outside the sport and failed a drug test for synthetic testosterone in January. This fight seems unlikely for Beterbiev, but 38-year-old former champion Jean Pascal (35-6-1) is another great possibility, as both are Canadian. The chances that the last fight will take place in the next 12 months are very strong, too – Pascal is classified as the No. 1 contender with the WBC.

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Parkinson: What is Lawrence Okolie’s ceiling after winning his first world title?

After winning his first world title in his 16th fight, Okolie’s time in the cruiserweight division is probably limited. He will probably be fighting like a heavyweight by the time he leaves for his 20th professional fight. How Okolie performs as a heavyweight is a different matter, but after the impressive KO victory on Saturday against former world cruiserweight champion Krzystof Glowacki to receive the WBO belt, he hopes the Londoner will move quickly to unify world titles at cruiserweight .

Okolie has become a much more polished boxer in the past two years, and he has always had the power to knock out with a punch, as evidenced by Glowacki’s sixth round knockout on Saturday with a right hand on his chin. More difficult tests are waiting, against IBF world champion Mairis Briedis (27-1, 19 KOs), from Latvia, and WBC holder Ilunga Makabu (28-2, 25 KOs), from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cruiserweight is not as competitive as the divisions above or below him, and Okolie has the potential to become the No. 1 world cruiserweight in his next fight to make the fight against Breidis a reality. With Oleksandr Usyk now in heavyweight, following his own successful unification of all four major world titles, Okolie can emerge as the division’s next unified world champion.

“He is so hard to prepare, he is so big, he is so imposing,” said Tony Bellew (30-3-1, 20 KOs), WBC cruiserweight champion from 2016 to 2018, about Okolie.