Vergil Ortiz Jr floats idea for fight with Adrien Broner

Welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr is one of the hottest rising young stars in the sport today, and the 22-year-old from Texas shared a photo and floated an idea on his Instagram in regards to possibly fighting Adrien Broner:

The photo and comment aren’t meant to be a “call out,” really, just Ortiz (15-0, 15 KO) sharing a nice memory he personally has of Broner (33-4-1, 24 KO). Ortiz noted that the photo is from six years ago, so he was a teenage amateur at the time it was taken.

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya did chime in that a fight with Broner would be “easy dinero” for Ortiz.

The 30-year-old Broner has won world titles in four weight classes and still managed to be seen as something of a disappointment given the early network and promoter hype that was behind his early push as a future superstar and even “next Mayweather.” In recent years, Broner has had troubles in and out of the ring. He hasn’t won a fight since 2017, going 0-2-1 in his last three, and recently demanded $10 million to fight again. He admits neither Al Haymon nor Showtime are looking to give him that, and went on a ramble about becoming a full-time rapper. Broner is a weird dude, though, so take almost everything he says with a grain of salt.

More likely than not, Broner will eventually return to the ring. He probably won’t get $10 million, but really, in a market that has paid far less popular fighters (or at the very least far lesser attractions) that kind of money in recent years, I can’t hate on the dude for throwing that out there.

I do think there’d be at least some intrigue in an Ortiz-Broner matchup. I really like Vergil as a prospect, as I think most do, and he has been destructive for sure. His 2019 wipeout wins over Mauricio Herrera, Antonio Orozco, and Brad Solomon were really solid stuff for career level. But Broner is, if not elite, a crafty young vet at this point, doesn’t really get hit clean a ton, and has never been stopped. He’d be a step up for Ortiz.

Let’s say it got signed for this year, who wins?