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Vergil Ortiz Jr is looking to stay undefeated and continue his 19 fight knock out streak over weekend as he faces his toughest test yet.
On Saturday July 8th, Ortiz is taking on undefeated Eimantas Stanionis for the WBA 140 pound regular belt at the AT&T Center in San Antonio Texas in a fight that will air live on DAZN.
It's finally July!! We've made it to #StanionisOrtizJr fight month! 💪#StanionisOrtizJr | LIVE on DAZN July 8th pic.twitter.com/2qT8CNqpQO
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) July 1, 2023
We sat down with Ortiz before his fight to talk about his health, his love for guitars, the praise he’s gotten from Canelo Alvarez, and his fight against Stanionis.
On his lingering health issues that kept him out earlier this year.
“I was dealing with rhabdomyolysis. It came from me having Covid from a long time ago. So I was suffering from long COVID, but we’ve been doing a tremendous amount of recovery, we’ve implemented it into my daily life every single day, twice a day sometimes. And I feel good. This is the best I’ve felt in a very long time”
on Crawford vs Spence.
“You know, at first I thought Crawford was going to win, but then I thought Spence was going to win, and Crawford then Spence. I’ve been flip flopping a lot. And every time I think about it, I think of of new outcomes. I don’t know. It’s kind of hard. I could even say that it might be a draw.”
On receiving praise from Canelo Alvarez
“Coming from Canelo, you know, he’s one of my favorite fighters of all time. He’s pound for pound #1 for me. It means a lot coming for him. He’s different. He’s different for sure but it does mean a lot.
On his love for playing the guitar
Boxer Vergil Ortiz Jr. on his love for guitar playing @VergilOrtiz @GoldenBoyBoxing @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/H7GFL62gjM
— BroBible (@BroBible) July 3, 2023
“I’ve played a lot of Guitar Hero. I would say that’s how it all started out. You know, Guitar Hero 3 was my first Guitar Hero that I got, and then my favorite boxer at the time, Robert Marroquin, he he also played the guitar and he gave me my first guitar, and he showed me where to go to and start learning how to read the guitar tabs.”
“And ever since then, I just I fell in love with the guitar. I fell in love with rock and other other kinds of music.”
“It’s really satisfying for me. You know, it’s it’s like it’s almost like boxing. It’s almost like getting a knockout for me. Or let’s say in soccer, you’re practicing a corner kick and you get it right in the corner. That’s what it feels like to me.”
On his fight vs Eimantas Stanionis
“His fighting style is to come forward. His style is a very fan friendly style, he likes to fight and I would say he’s like a true fighter. If you were to show someone a boxing fight for the first time, I would I would show them this one.
You can expect some fireworks. You know, it’s going to be a good banger of a fight. If you have a friend that hasn’t seen boxing before, just let him watch this fight.”