Vergil Ortiz Jr. stepped on the scale and made weight Friday for the first time in 17 months.
Ortiz officially weighed in at a career-high 156 pounds, the contracted limit for his 12-round fight Saturday night against Fredrick Lawson at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Chicago’s Lawson stepped on the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s scale at 152.4 pounds for what is officially a middleweight match.
Before Friday, Ortiz had not weighed in higher than 147 pounds for any of his first 19 professional fights. The 25-year-old Ortiz has moved up from the welterweight division to junior middleweight because he and his team determined that he could no longer safely squeeze his 5-foot-10 frame down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.
Ortiz (19-0, 19 KOs) withdrew from his previous two fights, both against WBA world welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis. He pulled out the first time last March due to rhabdomyolysis, a damaging muscle condition, and the second time six months ago because severe dehydration and heat exhaustion landed Ortiz in the hospital two days before he was scheduled to face Lithuania’s Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) on July 8 at AT&T Center in San Antonio.
Ortiz was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis in March 2022, when he was forced to postpone his fight with McKinson for four months. The Grand Prairie, Texas native told BoxingScene.com recently that three specialists informed him that he is no longer afflicted with rhabdomyolysis.
DraftKings sportsbook lists Ortiz as a 25-1 favorite to beat Lawson (30-3, 22 KOs), who was born in Ghana and resides in Chicago, in a main event DAZN will stream. Each of the 34-year-old Lawson’s three losses have come by knockout or technical knockout.
The official weights for the three Ortiz-Lawson undercard fights DAZN will stream are listed below.
DAZN
8 p.m. ET: 5 p.m. PT
Ohara Davies (25-2, 18 KOs), London, 140 pounds vs. Ismael Barroso (24-4-2, 22 KOs), El Tigre, Venezuela, 139.6 pounds, 12 rounds for the vacant WBA interim super lightweight title.
Arnold Barboza Jr. (28-0, 10 KOs), El Monte, California, 139.4 pounds vs. Xolisani Ndongeni (31-3, 18 KOs), Duncan Village, South Africa, 139.2 pounds, 10 rounds, junior welterweights.
Raul Curiel (13-0, 11 KOs), Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 146.8 pounds vs. Elias Diaz (12-1, 7 KOs), National City, California, 146.2 pounds, 10 rounds, welterweights.
By Keith Idec