By: William Holmes
On Saturday night Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Promotions will match their best welterweights against each other to unify the WBC, WBA, and IBF Middleweight Titles.
This bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The co-main event of the night will be between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Mauricio Herrera in the welterweight division. Other undercard fights will feature boxers such as Pablo Cesar Cano, Michael Perez, Joseph Diaz Jr., Sadam Ali, Lamont Roach, and Jonathan Oquendo.
Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions
The following is a preview of the co-main event and main event of the evening.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (12-0) vs. Mauricio Herrera (24-8); Welterweight Division
Vergil Ortiz is a young up and coming prospect that has twelve wins on his record, as well as twelve stoppage victories. He’s only twenty one years old, and will be facing someone that is seventeen years his elder who only has seven stoppage victories.
Ortiz will have about a two and half inch height advantage over Herrera, but will be giving up about an inch and a half in reach. Ortiz has been very active and fought once in 2019, three times in 2018, and five times in 2017. Herrera has not been as active. He fought once in 2018 and twice in 2017.
Ortiz also has a significant edge in amateur experience. He’s a former National Silver and Golden Gloves Champion, while Herrera has no notable amateur achievements.
Ortiz hasn’t faced any top level competition yet, but has defeated the likes of Jesus A. Valdez Barrayan, Roberto Ortiz, Juan Carlos Salgado, and Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez.
Herrera has lost three of his past five fights. He has defeated the likes of Jesus Soto karass, Hector Velazquez, Henry Lundy, Johan Perez, Ji Hoon Kim, and Mike Dallas Jr. His eight losses, many of them recently, were to Sadam Ali, Pablo Cesar Cano, Frankie Gomez, Jose Benavidez Jr., Danny Garcia, Karim Mayfield, Mike Alvarado, and Mike Anchondo.
Herrera is a good test for Ortiz in that he has eight losses but was never stopped, while Ortiz has yet to go to the judge’s scorecards. If Ortiz is able to stop Herrera you’ll know his power is for real, but Herrera doesn’t appear to be a real threat to give Ortiz his first loss.
Canelo Alvarez (51-1-2) vs. Daniel Jacobs (35-2); WBC/WBA/IBF Middleweight Titles
Canelo Alvarez is only twenty eight years old, but already has fifty four fights to his resume and has been a champion in the light middleweight, middleweight, and super middleweight divisions.
His opponent, Daniel Jacobs, is thirty two years old and considered by many to be the best opponent that Canelo could face in the middleweight division.
Jacobs will have about a three and a half inch height advantage and about a two and a half inch reach advantage over Canelo. Canelo has the edge in youth, but both boxers are still in their athletic prime.
Canelo and Jacobs both fought twice in 2017 and 2018, which is pretty standard for most champions and top contenders in boxing. Both boxers have pretty decent power, with Canelo stopping thirty five of his opponents and Jacobs stopping twenty nine. However, Canelo only has two stoppage victories in his past five fights and Jacobs only has one stoppage victory in his past five fights.
Canelo turned professional at the age of fifteen so he doesn’t have the amateur accomplishments of Jacobs, but he was a former Junior Mexican National Championship Gold Medalist. Jacobs had a successful career in the amateur circuit in the United States. He’s a former Junior Olympics National Champion and a former Golden Gloves National Champion.
Canelo’s only loss in his career was to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He has beaten the likes of Rocky Fielding, Gennady Golovkin, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland, Erislandy lara, Alfredo Angulo, Austin Trout, Shane Mosley, Josesito Lopez, and Alfonso Gomez.
Jacobs losses were to Gennady Golvokin in a close decision and a stunning upset knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog. He has defeated the likes of Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Maciej Sulecki, Luis Arias, Sergio Mora, Peter Quillin, Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher.
This should be a close and intriguing fight. Canelo, rightly, is the betting favorite and he has the more impressive list of victories. However, Jacobs does have a rather significant height and reach advantage on Canelo and he has spent most of his career fighting in the middleweight division. If Jacobs can stay on the outside and use his reach and footwork to his advantage he can pull out the victory.
But the judges have been kind to Canelo in the scorecards before, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the same thing happens on Saturday.
