Vergil Ortiz showed he’s a 147 player, but is he ready for Terence Crawford?

Saturday was a statement day in the boxing world. Vergil Ortiz proved he could defend an established veteran and former world title list in Maurice Hooker, and continued to show off the skills and strength that made him one of the brightest young boxing stars.

With a TKO in Round 7, Ortiz got himself into a serious title fight, speaking Terence Crawford’s name in his media interviews after the fight.

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

Whether 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 have been dazzling. With 17 knockouts in 17 fights, never having fought past the seventh round, his ambitions are clear.

But Ortiz wasn’t the only big winner on Saturday. Lawrence Okolie won a world cruiserweight title in his 16th pro fight, sending a former champion in Krzystof Glowacki. And after more than 500 days out of the ring, Artur Beterbiev continued his winning path in a successful defense of his WBC and IBF world titles – his record pushed his record to 16-0, with 16 KOs.

So what do these three wins mean? Ben Baby and Nick Parkinson break it all down.

Baby: Vergil Ortiz isn’t quite ready for Terence Crawford – but he could be close

“Vergil is young and on the rise,” said Maurice Hooker, shortly after his loss to Ortiz on Saturday. ‘But there are levels. He is good. But he is not ready for Terence Crawford. To be ready, he just has to keep building himself up. He will one day become a world champion. ‘

I 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 hit Ortiz often enough to leave an impression, and was able to roughly beat the 22-year-old as he showed that even at a loss, he is still a very solid and entertaining welterweight. Give Ortiz credit for making the adjustment in battle to get to the body, but beating someone of Crawford’s caliber requires a very special feat.

Even if that fight isn’t necessarily advisable in the short term, there is a path for Ortiz to get a hold of Crawford in early 2022. If the boxing politics can be ironed out, Ortiz is ready for some of the welterweights on the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella. Ortiz wants a title fight in 2021, and who says he’s not ready for the current WBA world title Yordenis Ugas, who won three after losing to Shawn Porter in March 2019. If Ortiz can win that fight, and maybe someone knockout knocks just like Danny Garcia or even a Josesito Lopez, he should be more than ready (and economically viable enough) for Crawford to seriously nurture the thought of a fight.

Also, let’s not forget that Crawford will have to face bigger names at some point. The boxing world can talk about the elusive Errol Spence Jr. who fights as hard as they want, but in the here and now, Crawford desperately needs a fight against Shawn Porter if he hopes to maximize his career earnings. Ortiz is hastily building credibility, and if there’s a boxer with a name who’s really willing to step in and fight Crawford, he’s in no position to say no to a fight that makes sense. Crawford is also too good and talented not to retire, with some big names getting him some nice payoffs.

If the odds are too high for both fighters to pass up, there is no reason not to let this happen.

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Parkinson’s: Beterbiev dominated and got the necessary rounds. What should be next?

At 36 years old and with such a fan-friendly style, Beterbiev needs the big fights and spotlight without more delays. After 519 days between fights, Beterbiev showed that he has lost none of his punitive finishing power in a 10th round stoppage from Adam Deines on Saturday. It keeps Beterbiev, who holds the WBC and IBF world titles, as the No. 1 fighter in the light heavyweight division, and a unification fight looks likely for later this year.

Perhaps the most fight fans wanting to see – and have been wanting to see for a while – is Beterbiev against fellow countryman Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs), who is defending his WBA version of the world title against British light. -heavyweight Craig Richards on May 1.

But another title fight that’s easier to make is Beterbiev against the winner of 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 both Smith and Beterbiev, making this fight more likely under the assumption that Smith – two years ago by Bivol – beats Vlasov.

Another Russian, Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 37, once a dreaded world champion and No. 1 in the division, isn’t the strength he was, has issues outside of the sport and failed a drug test for synthetic testosterone in January. That fight seems unlikely for Beterbiev, but former champion Jean Pascal (35-6-1), 38, is another big possibility as both are based in Canada. The chances of that final fight taking place in the next 12 months are pretty high as well – Pascal is in first place at the WBC.

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Parkinson’s: 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 likely to be limited. He will most likely be fighting like a heavyweight by the time he walks out for his 20th pro fight. How Okolie fares as a heavyweight is another matter, but after Saturday’s impressive KO win against former cruiserweight world title Krzystof Glowacki to collect the WBO belt, you expect the Londoner to quickly move up to unifying the world titles at cruiserweight.

Okolie has become a much more polished boxer in recent years, and he has always had knockout power, as evidenced by Glowacki’s sixth round knockout on Saturday with a right hand to the jaw. Harder tests lurk, against IBF world title Mairis Briedis (27-1, 19 KOs), from Latvia, and WBC title defender Ilunga Makabu (28-2, 25 KOs), from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cruiserweight isn’t as competitive as the divisions above or below it, and Okolie has the potential to become World No. 1 cruiserweight champion in his next bout if he makes Breidis’ fight a reality. With Oleksandr Usyk now a heavyweight, following his own successful unification of all four major world titles, Okolie could emerge as the division’s next unified world champion.

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