Date set - 3/19, per Coppinger. WBO minor title unification with the International and Global welterweight titles on the line, Ortíz's and McKinson's second defenses respectively of each.
A slick unbeaten southpaw is never anything to sneeze at. Ortíz hasn't fought a lefty since Chuito Valdez in 2019, and that was I believe just the second of his professional career. Never hurts to rack up experience, and collect yet another bauble in the same org that already ranks him to cement his status as Bud's mandatory.
Hard to see anything other than an Ortiz stoppage, although McKinson moves well, he doesn't hit anywhere near hard enough to keep Ortiz off him . McKinson has looked reasonably slick, but only at the level he has been fighting - this is a fairly ridiculous step up in competition. Runowski then Ortiz Jr? Best I can see here is that McKinson frustrates Ortiz and manages to keep it at range, but Ortiz is going to be all over him at some point, and will walk him down - i'd guess somewhere around 6-8 - but easily could be earlier.
Mckinson is good underrated technical, smart fighter with an slick unusual style. That said Ortiz is just so good he is the heavy favourite. I think when Ortiz beats Mckinson, the win will look far more impressive when Mckinson has numerous fights after ( who I belivee will gone to have a decent career).
Reckon Ortiz wins but will be one of those fights that more people will be hopping off the bandwagon than jumping on
Mckinson will have some success early on until he realises he can’t make a dent in Ortiz and eventually unravels, and gets stopped mid-late rounds
Ortiz is no fool and he knows damn well that British Slickness is the gold standard of slickness and that he's about to be enveloped in a vortex or awkwardness and confusion unlike anything he's ever seen or experienced before. Trust me he's fully cognizant of the fact that if he isn't on his A game and doesn't get his tactics right on the night McKinson is going to cause him nightmares. Hence why he's trained like never before for this fight and dumped his trainer Robert Garcia and has hooked up with someone who has a better understanding of British Slickness instead.
