Vergil Ortiz Jr looks to rebuild his career as he aims to make it a 20 wins, but Fredrick Lawson stands in the way as they collide in Las Vegas.

Oscar De Lay Hoya Golden Boy promotions hosts the first card of 2024, as undefeated American Vergil Ortiz Jr (19-0) takes on Ghana’s Fredrick Lawson (30-3) at The Theatre at The Virgins Hotels in Las Vegas.

Ring rust could play a massive factor in this fight as Vergil Ortiz Jr has been inactive for around 17 months.

He was meant to fight earlier in 2023 for the WBA Welterweight Championship against Eimantas Stanionis but that was cancelled on three separate occasions.

Vergil Ortiz Jr will also be making his debut at Junior Bantamweight after this long lay off.

In the press conference on Thursday Vergil Ortiz Jr stated: “ I want to be fighting at least three times this year and I wanna get my momentum back.

“I wanna be active and I want my name in peoples mouths again”, he said.

His opponent who at 34-years-old has 22 wins via knockout and last fought against Estevan Villalobos in Arlington back in April of last year.

Vergil Ortiz Jr comes into this fight as a heavy favourite and will take some stopping as he looks to move quickly for World Championship glory.

In the Co-Main event 31-year-old Ohara Davies (25-2) from Hackney will make both his USA debut and his Golden Boy promotions debut as he takes on Ismael Barroso (24-4-2) for the interim WBA Super Lightweight Championship.

These two were scheduled to fight on the undercard of Garcia vs Duarte back in December but visa issues played a factor and therefore was pushed back.

Davies comes into this fight on the back of a massive win against Lewis Ritson in Newcastle back in April of last year.

His opponent makes it back-to-back fights in Las Vegas and proudly fights out of Venezuela. However he comes into this fight on the back of a defeat to Roland Romero.

Writers views:

I back Vergil Ortiz Jr power massively and I believe that he will make easy work of Lawson. My only concern is that ring rust can affect a fighter but I don’t think that will play a factor at all and I fully believe Ortiz Jr gets the stoppage in the early rounds.

Ohara Davies like Ortiz Jr will be too strong and will easily win via a stoppage late on in the fight. In doing so it will set up a huge 2024 for the Englishman.

Words By Harry Tovey.