Vergil Ortiz Jr. Wins Canelo-Jacobs Co-Main Event; Joseph Diaz Jr. Captures WBA Gold Title
Vergil Ortiz Jr. gave fans at the T-Mobile Arena something to be excited about right before Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs enter the ring.
Ortiz knocked out Mauricio Herrera in the co-main event bout of the Canelo vs. Jacobs main card. Ortiz landed a vicious right hand that had Herrera knocked out standing less than 30 seconds into the third round.
The fight was mostly one-sided as Herrera kept getting hit with power punches from Ortiz from the start of the bout. The unbeaten Ortiz sent Herrera to the canvas at the end of the second round with a combination of punches that almost took Herrera out entirely. From the start of the third round, Ortiz hurt Herrera with another series of punches that led to the knockout.
The second fight of the main card saw Joseph Diaz Jr. capture the WBA Gold super featherweight with a dominant win over Freddy Fonseca. Diaz punished Fonseca throughout the entire fight, dropping his opponent in the sixth round, followed by Fonseca’s corner throwing in the towel late in the seventh round.
This was Diaz’s second straight fight at 130 pounds after unsuccessfully challenging for Gary Russell Jr.’s WBC 126-pound title in 2018 and then missing weight for a WBA “Regular” featherweight title fight against Jesus Rojas later that year. Although Diaz captured the WBA Gold title and could position himself to face either “Regular” champion Andrew Cancio in the future or against “Super” champion Gervonta Davis, Diaz called out IBF titleholder Tevin Farmer to a fight after the two sides had a heated exchange after the undercard press conference during fight week.
As for the opening fight of the main card, Lamont Roach Jr. escaped some early troubles from Jonathan Oquendo to win a 10-round decision to walk away with the WBO International and NABO super featherweight titles. Roach, who outboxed Oquendo in the last few rounds, won with scores of 97-92, 96-93 and 96-93.
Fightful’s live coverage of the card can be seen at this link. Fightful will also have a live post-fight show taking place right after the main event concludes.
