Madrimov Determined To Defeat Ortiz Jr. After Crawford Setback

Israil Madrimov wasn’t impressed by the unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jr’s performance in his last fight against WBC interim Junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk, and he felt that he should have lost after getting dropped twice in the Las Vegas-based contest.

Did He Really Win?

Ortiz Jr (22-0, 21 KOs) was given an unpopular 12-round majority decision to win the WBC interim 154-lb belt, and he’ll be defending it against former WBA champ Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on February 22nd in Riyadh. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV.

It would have been better if Vergil Jr. had done the right thing and volunteered to give Bohachuk an immediate rematch to clear up the controversy. However, after the punishment Ortiz Jr. received in that fight and how the match ended, it’s not surprising that he didn’t want to take the risk of getting knocked out or having the judges get it right.

Ortiz Jr. vs. Madrimov will fight on the undercard for the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch. Interestingly, the Vergil-Madrimov bot is below these two: Daniel Dubois vs. Joseph Parker and Carlos Adames vs. Hamzah Sheeraz.

It’s believed the reason those two fights are so high on the undercard to create interest from the UK audiences rather than fans from the rest of the world. Those two matches don’t move the needle for American fans, who view Parker as boring and Hamzah as a hype job.

Madrimov, 29, didn’t look great either in his last fight, losing to Terence Crawford by a 12-round unanimous decision on August 3rd. The Uzbek-born Madrimov wasted too much of the fight using feints and not throwing a lot of punches. He let older, weaker, smaller Crawford win by outworking him.

When Madrimov did let his hands go, he was getting the better of him, making him look all of 37. He just wasn’t busy enough and spending way too much time with his feints. Vergil Jr. obviously saw that, so he chose Madrimov because he has a chance of outworking him if he fights the way he did against Crawford.

“I think it’s hard fight for both fighters. I think it comes down to who has the better game plan, who listens to the corner better and who makes the better adjustments,” said Xander Zayas to Secondsout about the Israil Madrimov vs. Vergil Ortiz Jr. fight on February 22nd.

Israil Madrimov was not impressed with Vergil Ortiz’s performance 😤#BeterbievBivol2 | #RiyadhSeason | Feb 22, live on DAZN | @Turki_alalshikh pic.twitter.com/dtRyClRgu9

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) February 4, 2025