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

Saturday was a declarative day in the world of boxing. Vergil Ortiz proved that he can resist with a well-known veteran and former world title winner Maurice Hooker and continue to demonstrate the skills and power that made him one of the brightest young boxing stars.

With a TKO in the 7th round, Ortiz fought seriously for the title and spoke the name Terence Crawford in his post-fight interviews.

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

Whether or not Ortiz is ready for fighter no. £ 1 for ESPN is a matter of debate, but Ortiz’s results so far in his career are staggering. With 17 eliminations in 17 fights, without ever having fought after 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 the 16th professional fight, sending a former champion to Krzystof Glowacki in the process. And after more than 500 days out of the ring, Artur Beterbiev continued his ways of winning 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 break everything down.

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

“Vergil is young and young,” said Maurice Hooker shortly after his loss to Ortiz on Saturday. “But there are levels to that. He’s good. But he’s not ready for Terence Crawford. To be ready, he just has to build. He’ll be a world champion someday.”

I have to agree with Hooker here: Ortiz is good and will one day become world champion, but he may not be ready for Crawford yet. Hooker touched Ortiz often enough to leave a mark and managed to last the 22-year-old, showing that, even at a loss, he continues to be a very solid and fun welterweight. Give Ortiz credit for making the adjustment in the fight to go to the body, but to beat someone of Crawford caliber requires a very special performance.

Even if this fight is not necessarily advisable in the short term, there is a way for Ortiz to make Crawford in early 2022. If the boxing policy can be resolved, Ortiz is ready for a few hardships in the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella. Ortiz wants a title fight in 2021 and who will say he is not ready for the current WBA world title Yordenis Ugas, who won three in a row after a loss to Shawn Porter in March 2019. If Ortiz can win that fight and hit someone like Danny Garcia or even a Josesito Lopez, he should be more than prepared (and economically viable enough) for Crawford to seriously entertain the thought of a fight.

Also, let’s not forget that at some point, Crawford has to start facing bigger names. The boxing world may talk about Errol Spence Jr.’s elusive fight 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 gains. Ortiz is hastily consolidating his credibility, and if there is a boxer with a name who is actually willing to step in and fight Crawford, he is unable to say no to a fight that makes sense. Crawford is also too good and too talented not to retire, with some brand gains on big names that earn him some nice pay days.

If the opportunity is too great for both fighters to give up, there is no reason not to.

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Parkinson’s: Beterbiev dominated and got a few rounds needed. What should be next?

At 36 years old and with such a fan-friendly style, Beterbiev needs big fights and spotlights without further delay. After 519 days between fights, Beterbiev showed that he did not lose his final penalty power in a 10th round victory with Adam Deines on Saturday. It keeps Beterbiev, who holds the WBC and IBF world titles, as the No. 1 fighter in the lightweight division, and a unification fight seems likely by the end of this year.

Perhaps the one that most wrestling fans want to see – and want to see for some time – is Beterbiev against his Russian teammate Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs), who is defending his WBA version of the world title against British light – Greig Craig Richards on May 1.

But another easier title unification fight 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 10 April Top Rank promotes both Smith and Beterbiev, making this fight more likely by assuming that Smith – highlighted by Buffalo two years ago – defeats Vlasov.

Another Russian, Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 37 years old, once feared world champion and number 1 in the division, is not the force he was, has problems away from sports and failed a synthetic testosterone drug test in January. This fight seems unlikely for Beterbiev, but former champion Jean Pascal (35-6-1), 38, is another great possibility, as both are based in Canada. The chances of the last fight taking place in the next 12 months are also quite strong – Pascal is ranked 1st in the WBC competition.

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

After winning his first world title in the 16th battle, Okolie’s time in the cruiser division is probably limited. Most likely he will fight by weight until he comes out for the 20th professional match. How Okolie behaves like a heavyweight is a different matter, but after Saturday’s impressive KO victory over former world title Cruzystof Glowacki to collect the WBO belt, expect the Londoner to move quickly towards unifying world cruiserweight titles.

Okolie has become a much more polished boxer in the last few years and has always had the power to knock out with a single fist, as evidenced by Glowacki’s Saturday knowout, with his right hand on his jaw. The toughest tests are waiting, against the IBF world title Mairis Briedis (27-1, 19 KOs), from Latvia, and the WBC holder Ilunga Makabu (28-2, 25 KOs), from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cruiserweight is not as competitive as the top or bottom divisions, and Okolie has the potential to become the world No. 1 cruiserweight. 1 in his next fight if he makes Breidis a reality. With Oleksandr Usyk now in the heavyweight division, after his own successful unification of all four major world titles, Okolie may emerge as the next world champion in the division.

“It’s so hard to prepare for, it’s so big, it’s so imposing,” said Tony Bellew of Okolie (30-3-1, 20 KOs), 2016-2018 WBC cruiserweight champion.