I'm very pleased to welcome in for our first podcast episode of twenty twenty four,
my man Virgil Ortiz Junior, the undefeated, one time welterweight contender,
now hopefully a junior middleweight contender as far as he's concerned, Virgil, you
have an important fight coming up your first morning a while on Saturday. First
of all, how are you doing. Thank you so much for doing this.
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm doing pretty good. You know,
I've had a really good training camp that's of great right now. You
know, I was just joining the bag earlier today, and you know we're
very excited for Saturday. Well, I'm doing this on a zoom call.
The people who are going to listen to this, they can't see that big
smile on your face when you said that, So I'm glad you're in good
spirit. So we'll let folks know. You're fighting Saturday night at the Virgin
of Hotels, Las Vegas. It is the Golden Boy first fight of the
year at on his own, and you'll be making your junior middleweight debut,
taking on Frederick Lawson, who's thirty and three with twenty two knockouts. Also
moving up to the junior middleweight division, and I'd just like to start out,
you know, I mean, I'm sure you're gonna hear this, or
you've heard this a lot in the in the recent past. You'll hear it
leading up to the fight. I'm sure you have been out of the ring
since August of twenty twenty two because of your health issues and that sort of
thing you had, the blood disorder that's been well chronicled. How is your
health now as you get back in the ring. I mean last time it
was around this time where you know, the week of the fight you suddenly
were out of the fight against danionis now we're getting close to how do you
feel and are you ready to sort of start that new chapter? I feel
great, you know what? And this is this is this kind of feeling
that I'm feeling right now. It's really familiar, you know what I mean,
Like this reminds me of when I was I was at my best,
and you know, it's it's it's kind of funny thinking about it because I
was like, man, I haven't felt this in a long time. So
you know, I have a really good feeling about this, and you know,
I'm just kind of down, but they used to be honest. You
know, it's crazy because you know sometimes in Wayne week, I'm like,
I'm hungry, man, I just I just want to eat something. I
just know whatever. Right now, I don't even care about the hundred.
I'm not hungry at all. I just I just keep thinking I want to
fight, like I need to fight, so like, I don't know,
I just it's it's in my you know, it's in my crosshairs. I'm
ready, So I was. That's the other thing I would ask you about,
mainly, so if your health is good. I mean it seems to
me, as somebody that has watched your entire career picked you, you know,
a few years ago as the prospect of the year. You're still undefeated,
all your wins by knockout in nineteen to o, still a young man,
and seems to me that the only thing that stands in the way between
you and major title fights and you know, big money fights and real stardom
is your own health, not because the lack of ability or the opportunity.
Would you agree with that, I agree with it, But I mean I
feel like there's there's it's more. It's it's not black mite, you know,
I feel like a lot of the health issues came from me. A
lot of it was overtraining, but not in the sense of high intensity.
It was more of too long as in fights weren't happening and they were supposed
to, you know, like like when I was gonna fight mckinson, Uh,
they announ say it was gonna be a WB eliminated to fight Stanionis,
who had the regular title, and so I knew before I found mckinson.
Hey, like, once I beat this guy, I gotta I'm gonna fight
this guy, and we're supposed to fight that year. But you know,
some I don't know fucking bullshit or excuses what was happening from there, but
you know we ended up not fighting at He's getting the fight schedule to March,
and then you know he had to have surgery till April. You know,
well, I've been training since, you know, like a month after
the mckinson fight, getting ready for my first World Tighter side. You know,
I'm gonna take it seriously, No, no, no day is off,
you know, just just working as hard as I can, try to
stay ready, and you know, it's it's just it's it's a lot of
the same stuff over and over again. Now nothing's consistent. You know,
like if if you know this, when I was at my best, stop
for one second when you say at your best, when was that? Like?
At what what I was? I was gonna tell you just straight up,
when I find Houston against this Sasho's guy, and then I fought in
May against Racio Herrera. Then I fought in August against Antonio Rosco. Then
I fought in December against Solomon Well. Dude, that I fought four times
back to back to back to back. I was, I was on the
roll. I had momentum. I was training, fighting, resting, training,
fighting, resting. Then it got to a point where I was I
arrested after you know, let's say the mckenson fight, and then just so
people know the mckin we'll just put that up the times frame the mckenson fight,
which had been postponed from earlier in twenty twenty two, because if your
health issues took place in August of twenty twenty two, which is the last
you were able to fight. Yeah, so you know, I fought with
Kinson and you know we're waiting for this fight, you know, so I'm
training, I'm getting ready for it. This fight doesn't happen. It's gonna
happen maybe like a few more months down line. Well, be back off
with training a little bit. I'm still in the gym, but I'm still
training. Not not as hard necessarily, but I'm still training. I gotta
stay active. And then you know, we pick it up against when get
ready for training camp, and then the fight is postponed, and then I'm
still training. I'm just training. I'm just training all the time, NonStop,
you know, and it's just it gets to my body. You know.
You know, no one can do that. So how come you didn't
back off a little bit? I mean, you know, I mean you
knew the fight was going to be real scheduled, but it would be maybe
a couple of months down the road, and you know, not to say
like get completely out of shape, but just back off, just you know,
relax a little bit, you know, put get your body together,
your your your your mental state together, and you know, and and get
back to it. More seriously, when you know the fight schedule, you
see, that's that's that's a hard thing to do, especially as a boxer.
You know, they say, you know, get ready, stay ready,
so you don't have to get ready, you know what I'm saying.
And I had him fight yet, Well what if something else came up?
You know, let's say say, Okay, you know, maybe you're not
going to fight this kind of but you gotta you can fight this guy in
in some so we okay, Well I'm ready. I've been I've been staying
ready. We've seard those stories before that. Oh well, I was already
in the gym for like, you know, four six weeks already. They
gave me the call and we just went in and you know, so we're
just I'm just doing my job. So so tell me what was it that
happened. You were scheduled to fight Stanni Onus for the for the for his
w B a regular title on three different occasions. Uh. First you had
your issue, then he had the appendectomy, then you had the final one
that forced the fight to finally be canceled, which was I guess the week
of the fight. Uh this past summer. It was in July, I
believe, and uh, you know, you were working out, as the
story goes, you fainted. They had to take it to the hospital.
It was a deemed that it was a matter of dehydration that you were,
you know, struggling to make the forty seven pounds limit. Can you describe
to me what happened during that situation during that fight week that led to you
landing in the hospital and having to cancel this fight for the third time.
Well, wake cut was going good, and and so I just I just
couldn't, you know, like my body just started like kind of like just
saying no. And I don't want to say, like, I don't want
to say exactly what happened, because you know, it's it's if it was
anyone else, it would have been triumtizing. If I'm being honest, Like,
if I'm being completely honest, I'm not. I'm not a dramatic diet
right, but it was it was scary. I just put it that way.
It was it was a little scary. Yeah, Well, we're all
happy that you're good now, and you know, you sound good and you
look good. So that's important that you're back and back in the swing of
things. And now that your health is back in and you have a fight
that's set and I'm sure you're you know, as you said, excited to
get back in the ring against Lawson. On Saturday. Uh, I know
how frustrated Stanionas is because he hasn't fought since uh that was canceled either,
and has been struggling to get another fight, you know, before the end
of last year. Has nothing scheduled so far yet this year. And uh
and I know you you got to be frustrated. Also, can you describe
just a level of disappointment frustration ever you want to describe it? Not only
was it an opportunity to win the WBA secondary title, but big payday associated
with it. Golden Boy, you know, made a big, big purse
bit on that on that fight, and everybody was looking forward to getting paid
and putting on a great show. I can't tell you how many fans were
very excited for the matchup, myself included. Yeah, I mean it was
it was extremely disappointing. The disappointment isn't even the word say anymore. You
know, I was beyond frustrated, you know, especially happening for I think
my third time, and uh, you know, it was just I don't
know, definitely something I do I do not want to happen again, you
know, just you know what suck anymore is when uh, after you think
you're done, Like how do I say, dealing with not fighting or whatever,
like, okay, next one, fine, you know, I'm getting
ready game. My confidence is coming back up. Had some people come up
to me and say, man, we were gonna go to the fight and
we heard about it, and we just looked at each other like man,
we're We're all quiet, and I'm just like, damn, yeah, I
feel bad again, you know, Like I mean, listen, I think
most people understand stuff happens. It just seemed like with that fight again,
no nobody's fault necessarily, but it's unusual to have that. It happened three
times back to back to back where it's you know, both both fighters have
their issues that cause it. So it's almost like it wasn't you just sort
of get the feeling maybe that maybe you and Stanionis for that title just wasn't
meant to be in a way. I guess it wasn't. You know,
it didn't happen and I'm not going out one forty seven. I can't do
it. Well, Okay, So that's the next question is how how are
you now that you're able to have you know, and and you know,
the extra pounds at junior middleweight and maybe should you have been there a couple
of years earlier. Uh, Like I said, if I would, if
if we would have had consistent fight bates now that that fight definitely would have
happened, you know, uh, you know it's it's uh, I don't
know. Well, when you're not fighting, and when we fight, we
dropped down and wait and go and you know we gain our healthy weight back
and we dropped down. You just consistently. You know for people in the
podcast, you're going down and up, down and up. Well, you're
you're keeping the weight in check. Well, I hadn't fought in the wise,
my weight is just healthy weight up here. So like the the most
I can drop is slowly creeping up on me. So one forty seven was
might have been out of the picture. So explain to people when you're not
fighting and it's just normal Virgil ortis, you know, hanging out with the
family, you know, going to the store, you know, you know,
doing a little bit of workout, but not training for a fight specifically,
what would be normal weight, you know, as opposed to being one
forty seven, I'm like one se okay, So now I assume it's much
you know, it's still hard, I'm sure, but to go from one
seventy to make one fifty four as a heck of a lot more achievable in
a safe, in proper manner than one forty seven. Hell yeah, yeah,
it's it makes a difference, you know, And some people don't understand,
like, even accounted you can make the biggest difference. You know.
I've always I've always said, if if you're if your normal size person in
your normal life non boxing is one seventy, how can you're not fighting that
middleweight? Let's say, because no one else is going to do that,
You're going to be fighting heavyweights, right, Okay? You know, and
you know there's a lot of people saying, how come you don't fight?
Hey? You wait, well, how about I can fight out the way
that I can make without without killing myself? You know what I mean.
So that's that's what a lot of non boxers don't understand, really, is
that that's just that's not how it works. So when you get in the
ring on Saturday against Frederick Laws and all of this pent up, you know,
aggravation and disappointment and and frustration that we've been talking about, are you
taking that out on Frederic Loss on Saturday night. I don't know, you
know, I well, you know, when I'm in the boxing ring,
I tend to just flip a switch and I just go into the work mode.
You know, I just I forget about everything. You know. Maybe
though, maybe they will have it in the interview. Maybe I'll take it
out on Chris mannage or something. I don't know, don't don't, don't
don't do my boy Chris like that. No, not on him, but
like just more towards the questions, and you know, just just I have
a lot, I really, you know, I got I got a lot
to say about people criticizing my camp, my trainers, me not understanding what
happens and like how boxing works, like not understanding that. Just people who
don't know the sport talking to myself that they don't know. Man, I
have so much to say and stuff that I'm not gonna say. Well,
I was gonna say, you have an open form or here to say whatever
you want. Yeah, man, But it's you know what, sometimes I
just hate sportsmans. And you know, I catch myself, you know,
I hear people I catch myself saying, man, like why did he catch
the ball? Well, fuck, people are saying, why didn't he make
way? You know, I'm just like, I'm okay, I see it,
you know, I see it. So I a lot of times I
tend to keep my opinions to myself at that point because I'm not in that.
I didn't grow up doing that stuff, so I don't know exactly how
hard it is. You know, there's a lot of different stuff, and
there's a lot of baseball things, like, for example, the Rangers were
supposed to win, you know, they were one catch away from from from
winning the World Series. I think it was like twenty eleven or or or
out or something like that. Well apparently, you know, it looked like
it was just a pop up shot and he could have just hustled and caught
the ball. Well, I didn't notice until a few like years later,
a lot of baseball players like that was actually a really hard ball to catch.
You know, it was just kind of like the right the perfect angle
for us or I don't know, I see, I don't I can't even
explain it, right because I don't know. I don't know, determin have
a lot a fucking baseball player. But apparently it was a super It was
more complicated than what it looked like. Yeah, and everybody's gonna have their
opinions about that, where those of us on the outside are watching and the
athletes are the ones performing, and you know, it kind of goes with
the dun't I figure kind of goes with the territory. I wanted to ask
you just a couple more questions. You're back training now with Robert Garcia,
who was your trainer for you know, quite a while. You split up
with him in two thousand endto twenty twenty one. Have that just the one
fight? I guess Since then with the against mckinson, there was a lot
of conversation. You're gonna go to Eddie Reinoso. You ended up you and
your dad working with Manny Roblis, who's been a top trainer for a long
time. Also curious what ended up happening with Robert that that occurred, and
now that you're back with him, and how's that been, I guess getting
back with him because from what he says, it's kind of like nothing happened,
like you've always been again exactly. That's exactly what I was in the
say. It literally felt like we just picked up right where we left off,
you know, like the vibe nothing, no, no vibes changed,
no, nothing changed, No, just it was in the same, like
I don't know, it was. It was really cool how that worked out.
You just decided to go back and gave him a call and said,
hey, can we can we try again? You know, we were thinking
about it and then you know, ultimately I was just like that's where I
was at my best, you know, which is take me to go back.
That's all it was. And Robert's not the kind of guy that's gonna
I don't think. I knowing him a long time doesn't hold that against him.
He was probably happy to have you back in the gym. Yeah,
he was very happy to have me back, and I was happy to be
back. And you know, just to be that environment with you know,
top fighters of the world, just just training alongside geam, you know,
and just helping each other get better, motivating each other. That's what it's
all about. Yeah, that's good to hear it. I just want to
I want to wrap up with this. You have this fight against Lost and
it's January. So if everything is good and you know you're you make your
weight fine and there's no issues with injuries or anything like that. Based on
that early early in the year that you fight, it seems logical that in
the right circumstance you might be able to get in three fights this year,
which would probably seem to be good for you, and I'm sure the fans
would be happy and golden boy after a long time of not having more than
one fight in the year. So what's your ideal twenty twenty four in terms
of the number of fights and that caliber of fights? At least three hopefully
for four? Uh? And I want to I want to fight for old
titles here for sure, because I you know, I'm done waiting, you
know, I just I ain't gonna wait for nobody. And like I said,
it's if they're trying to mannate some shit. I'm guiltun about that.
Like, I just want to fight, you know, And I don't know,
I just well, the division is in the division's kind of in flux.
Charlote's got a couple of belts, but no one's sure what his future
plans are. Tim Zoo has emerged, you have they just call the purse
spid for the vacant IBF title, which will be dealt with. And though
in the coming months, you got the possibly maybe Terrence Crawford or Erol Spence
or both of them come to one fifty four. And so it feels like
a division that's going in through a change but still has you know, good
names that are there to perhaps challenge. Do you see it that way?
Yeah, it's good. But man, Crawford and fans better not hold up
those bets skins because I'm not having that shit, bro not not again.
You know, I could have been had in that world title one fifty seven,
but you know they put that division on lockdown. Yeah, for for
it's kind of what happens. You know, everybody wants to see the undisputed
fight, and so there's a backup. Then we get the undisputed fight and
now and that's great that fight. That fight could have happened with one belt
or two belts, you know, I I don't know, I just I
don't even want to talk about that. Well, they don't have belts at
one fifty four, so that'll be the opportunity for you and for them to
have to go after them. Whatever happens. Though, Virgil I wrote you
a lot of good luck and a lot of good health on Saturday with bloss
and I appreciate you doing this, thanks for having me, and it's always
nice time you bet Virgil. Good luck to you Saturday, and uh well,
hopefully we'll talk again when things are good and you're at one fifty four,
comfortably situated and going for your world title. Thanks a lot it,
sir, Thank you