Vergil Ortiz Jnr’s promoter praised his fighter’s efforts in a unanimous decision win last month over Israil Madrimov, especially given Madrimov’s performance in a title loss to Terence Crawford last year.

“I was actually worried. I was worried about Madrimov because of what people made him out to be after ‘Bud’ Crawford,” De La Hoya, the Hall of Fame fighter turned namesake head of Golden Boy Promotions, said in an interview with FightHype. 

“And that’s the beast – ‘My gosh, Madrimov did so well against Crawford that he’s maybe going to walk right through Vergil Ortiz!’ But we saw the opposite,” De La Hoya said. “Vergil Ortiz adjusted. He knew how to cut off the ring. I mean, his ring generalship was amazing. He was a veteran up there against Madrimov. He did extremely well. I think Vergil Ortiz did better than what Crawford did against Madrimov.”

Though De La Hoya is not an objective observer, his assessment is fair. While Crawford troubled Madrimov with single counter shots and outworked him, Ortiz truly overwhelmed the tricky Uzbek at times, especially in a beatdown of a ninth round. Ortiz also had Madrimov’s measure from earlier on, weathering a tricky first couple rounds before slowly beating Madrimov up over the course of the fight.

Of course, Ortiz may have benefitted from watching Crawford beat Madrimov first, and he is more of a natural junior middleweight than “Bud.” Crawford was also 36 when he fought Madrimov, whereas Ortiz was 26 – which De La Hoya acknowledged. 

“At 36 years old [...] something happens to your legs. They start to shake a little,” De La Hoya said. “Your conditioning is not 100%. There’s something always wrong when you hit that stage of your career at 36.” 

De La Hoya knows that well, having retired at 35 years old after Manny Pacquiao demolished him in 2008. 

Madrimov, meanwhile, has seen his stock rise and tumble in the last year. He went from a relative unknown among casual fans – despite having a world title – to the guy who gave the pound-for-pound king arguably his closest fight. That enhanced Madrimov’s reputation, likely excessively in some corners. Now he is seen as a fighter with back-to-back losses and not enough willingness to throw punches. 

De La Hoya has balked at the idea of a fight between Ortiz and IBF titleholder Bakhram Murtazaliev, given the grueling nature of Ortiz’s outings against Madrimov and Serhii Bohachuk. Still, he thinks Ortiz has several avenues in front of him. 

“I’m thinking about maybe doing a homecoming party for him in Dallas,” De La Hoya told FightHype. “Fight a top-10 guy and then go after [unified WBC/WBO titleholder Sebastian] Fundora, then go after Crawford, [who] might come back to 154 after he fights Canelo at 168. There’s a lot of options out there for Vergil.”