‘KO King’ meets ‘The Problem’
BBN Editor Tim Rickson previews the Ortiz-McKinson fight this weekend
Texan Vergil Ortiz Jr. (18-1, 18KO) clashes with Portsmouth’s Michael McKinson (22-0, 2KO) on August 6 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, after a delayed start with the welterweights originally scheduled to fight back in March.
Now, the pair finally meet five months on in a clash of styles that sees puncher and boxer go head to head.
Trained by his father Vergil Ortiz Sr. and Roberto Garcia in Grand Prairie, Ortiz Jr. is a seven-time national champion and winner of the 2013 Junior Olympics, with a highly impressive amateur record of 140-20.
As a professional, the 24-year-old American ‘KO King’ is as powerful as they come, you can see that in his record without even watching his fights. Although if you have seen his fights, you will have witnessed the speed and power firsthand. He punches through his opponent, like Mike Tyson before him, and the result is pure devastation. I’ve seen this power-puncher knock more than one opponent off their feet with just his jab.
He stopped his first four professional opponents in the first round, it took up to his fifth fight to go past the opening round. He went on to score six first-round knockouts – that’s a third of his bouts so far – and two-thirds of his fights haven’t gone past the third round.
Since entering championship level, his fights have had the same outcome but the rounds have been extended a little. His last five title fights have all ended in stoppages, but from rounds five, six, seven (twice), and eight.
His opponents are managing to go a few rounds with him now the level of competition has increased, and his next foe is well known for doing some rounds, 149 rounds boxed compared to Ortiz’ 60.
The Brit is a super sharp, reactive, twitchy, elusive, fleet-footed, awkward southpaw. Despite the big names on the Texan’s resume, McKinson is going to provide him with one of his hardest fights yet.
Also trained by his father, Michael Ballingall, he just missed out on national honours during his 47-bout amateur career. He turned pro aged 20 and his biggest struggle has been finding willing opponents to face him.
In his last fight, McKinson was subject to a last-minute change of opponent with Alex Martin stepping in at 36 hours notice. The Brit took a couple of flush shots in rounds three and four, while he got to grips with his new foe, but took them in his stride, and full credit to him for taking the fight after preparing for an aggressive, come-forward opponent for many months in training only to be replaced with a backfoot fighter, which meant McKinson had to press the action which is not something he is accustomed to doing often. With these new tactics deployed, he had mixed results in the early rounds, where there wasn’t a lot of action, but dominated the second half of the contest with ease.
He has just one knockout in his last 10 fights and only two KOs on his ledger after 22 bouts, so we know that he isn’t a puncher.
Ortiz will have to be wary despite the confidence he clearly has in his own power, because McKinson has already taken four fighters’ ‘0’, with a combined record of 49-0. In fact, the last eight opponents he has beaten possess an impressive combined record of 119-8, so he has stood up to the test of stepping up a level in opposition.
The American has never fought against an undefeated opponent before, but his recent resume is also highly impressive, more so than McKinson’s, with Olympians, world title contenders, former interim and world champions, all recently stopped in their tracks.
Clearly this fight is puncher vs boxer, where one could win by stoppage and the other on points. Will the power prevail or will the stylist be successful?
Visiting fighter McKinson will be looking to box stylishly and elusively to win this fight on points, you would expect. Given that he pressed the action in his last fight and got caught clean a couple of times early on, it would be ill-advised to try this tactic against Ortiz Jr., who is sharp and spiteful.
The home fighter will be expecting to land heavily at some point to turn the fight his way, but you would suspect that he may be conscious of giving away a few rounds first while he tries to track down his mobile match and close the gap between them to land those heavy blows of his.
It is widely expected by fight fans that Ortiz will score yet another knockout, but then they may not be aware of the skills that McKinson’s possesses, like us British fight fans do. We have watched his sublime skills for some time now, but the States have only witnessed it once, and even then they weren’t really watching the regular ‘Mikey the Problem’ that we all know and admire.
Ortiz leaves a trail of devastation in his wake, but could he be in for a night of frustration this weekend? It's an intruiging question that I can't wait to find out the answer to!
Betting Odds
The American is the clear favourite to win at home at 1/20 with Betway, while the visiting Brit is being given very little chance at 7/1, and the odds for a draw are high at 25/1, which suggests that no one is expecting this to go the distance.
Verdict
The betting odds surprise me greatly. McKinson is largely written off and I believe that’s because most U.S. fight fans really aren’t very familiar with him.
I must confess that when I heard the fight had been made, I was immediately fearful of Ortiz scoring yet another knockout, but with the slight hope in my heart that McKinson could pull of the performance of his life to cause a major upset.
After seeing the betting odds, I am siding with McKinson to outbox Ortiz on home soil and win on points. I’m going with my heart, of course, I love an underdog and I’ll always back the Brit abroad.
I’m not ignorant to the fact that one of the most likely outcomes will be a knockout victory to Ortiz, and if it comes then I’d expect it to be from the middle rounds onwards, as there will be a closing down, catching up process to endure. But I would love for our guy to go over there and box perfectly to beat the American on home soil, which, I believe, is a distinct possibility.