Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Egidijus Kavaliauskas

Saturday, August 14th, 6:00 PM PST – DAZN

How good is Vergil Ortiz Jr.? Well, I think he is really good, but so is Egidijus Kavaliauskas, also known as “The Mean Machine”, and with Marco Contreras in the Kavaliauskas’ corner you know he will be well prepared as well. That being said, Vergil Ortiz Sr., and Robert Garcia are both very good boxing minds as well, as this is truly an exciting bout, worth making time for.

“I feel pretty good, you know, this is my second time fighting in Texas, I’m the main event and I want to put on a good show,” said Ortiz. “Everyone has been asking for this fight, our styles complement each other. It’s going to be a good fight no matter what.” 

Ortiz has surpassed Ryan Garcia, who was the top draw at Golden Boy, after Canelo Alvarez left the boxing company, as Garcia has only fought once at the beginning of the year against Luke Campbell, and has taken a prolonged absence from the sport due to mental health issues. Ortiz was last seen stopping former world champion Maurice “Mighty Mo” Hooker, and now will look to fight another top-ten opponent in Kavaliauskas.

Ortiz has beaten thus far, Hooker, Brad Solomon, Samuel Vargas, Antonio Orozco, and Mauricio Herrera 52 rounds of professional fighting across his seventeen pro fights, all of which ending in knockout. It is hard not to get excited about Ortiz, a 23-year-old fighter, who is an action fighter, trained by his father, Vergil Ortiz Sr., and has the chance to be a very special fighter with his willingness to fight.

This bout is interesting as they are mirror images of each other, as four years ago, in boxing circles people had the faith in Kavaliauskas’ becoming a star, but he never truly translated to the world level as some would’ve hoped. As Kavaliauskas made a name for himself on the club scene beating a great boxer in Prenice Brewer on a Top Rank club show years ago.

The story of Kavaliauskas’ career is up-and-down following the Brewer win he fought Cameron Kreal in a bout that he struggled in.

A few fights later, Kavaliauskas would beat David Avanesyan, a fighter who had recently retired Shane Mosley at the end of Mosley’s career, and stopped him in six-rounds, as well as stopped Roberto Arriaza in three rounds a tough and aggressive pressure fighter, but this was followed by a lackluster draw to Ray Robinson, that some felt he lost. By default, Kavaliauskas got the Terence Crawford world title fight, and gave Crawford all he could handle even dropping Crawford, though the referee called it a slip, before getting stopped by the generational great, Crawford.

“I love boxing, it’s what I love to do,” said Kavaliauskas at the press conference prior to his main event bout on DAZN. “This is going to be a great fight. I know his style and he knows mine, styles make fights. I like that he is a fighter that brings it, and I am not surprised he took the fight, he is a warrior as am I.”   

The underlying story of this bout is how Ortiz looks compared to Crawford who didn’t have a lot of success against the 2008 Olympian Kavaliauskas, as Ortiz is currently the number one contender for Crawford’s bout, and made no bones about it, that he is willing to fight Crawford, while Crawford, and his hype-man for the evening, WBO super featherweight champion, Jamel Herring, laughed at this.

Ortiz is on the verge of becoming a world champion, and Kavaliauskas is not unlike Brandon Vera when Vera faced Jon Jones, a long emerging, fighter facing a mirror image of himself from years prior. You should watch this bout as this will tell a lot about the futures and trajectories of both fighters.