Vergil Ortiz just put the welterweight division on notice.
Saturday night's fight against Maurice Hooker was billed as the toughest test of his young career. An onslaught fueled by strong body shots helped Ortiz pick up a seventh-round TKO victory over Hooker at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The fight was stopped when Hooker suffered a right hand injury, but before that Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs) showed why he will be a force in the division. Ortiz knocked Hooker down in the sixth round and was on the verge of pushing toward a stoppage victory before Hooker was hurt.
"I feel like I'm a problem at 147 [pounds]," Ortiz, 22, said in the post-fight interview on DAZN, also praising Hooker for taking on such a tough fight.
Ortiz and Hooker were both looking to establish themselves as welterweight contenders after fighting previously at 140 pounds, where Hooker was a champion. Hooker moved up to the 147-pound division after he lost his belt in a TKO loss to Jose Ramirez.
From the opening bell, the two fighters from the Dallas-Fort Worth area gave the local fans plenty of action. Ortiz pressed forward with powerful hooks while Hooker looked to catch Ortiz on the inside during those exchanges.
Eventually, Hooker settled down and maximized his reach advantage. In his second fight with trainer Brian McIntyre, Hooker popped Ortiz with a few shots from the outside. Through the third and fourth rounds, Ortiz's face started to redden as the former champion found his rhythm.
"He was showing me that he was durable, definitely," Ortiz said. "He could definitely take a punch. He really could. He was smart. He was trying to get around my guard. I knew what to do."
The solution? Go to the body.
Ortiz focused his attack on Hooker's midsection, which immediately paid off. In the fifth round, Ortiz hit Hooker with a big body shot that left Hooker protecting his ribs for the rest of the round. When he went back to the corner, Hooker told McIntyre he couldn't breathe and apologized for taking too many punches.
Of Ortiz's 96 power punches, 47 of them were body shots, according to CompuBox.
In the sixth, Ortiz dropped Hooker with a left uppercut, followed by a straight right hand that plopped Hooker in the corner with seconds left in the round, blood slowly trickling from his right nostril. While Hooker was able to survive the round, the fight ended early in the seventh after he suffered the injury.
Hooker tried to explain the injury in his post-fight interview, saying, "My hand popped."
With the performance, Ortiz made a strong case for getting a crack at a welterweight title bout. Dallas' Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford, who is also trained by McIntyre, were both ringside on Saturday night.
Crawford has struggled to find elite opponents despite being one of the world's best pound-for-pound fighters. When asked before the fight about a potential match-up against Ortiz, Crawford immediately dismissed the notion.
"I just laugh at it," Crawford told DAZN. "Right now, I'm on bigger and better things."
Hooker (23-2-3, 18 KOs) gave Ortiz his credit and said while he supported his fellow Dallas-area fighter, he didn't believe Ortiz was ready to take on Crawford.
"He's gotta keep taking fights," Hooker said. "He's gotta keep building himself up. He's going to be ready. He's going to be a world champion one day."
But with his 17th knockout in as many pro fights, Ortiz showed why a title shot by the end of 2021 could be a possibility.
Ortiz acknowledged it will take someone giving him that chance, which could be a big risk for a current champion. During his post-fight interview, Ortiz looked directly at Crawford and said that he was "more than willing" to face the WBO welterweight champion.
Ortiz, ESPN's Prospect of the Year in 2019, said he didn't want to disrespect any fighters when discussing future opponents. But that certainly doesn't mean Ortiz is shying away from a future challenge against Crawford, especially after arguably the most impressive victory of his young career.
"I don't care if I'm ready or not," Ortiz said. "I want that fight."