Rashidi Ellis targeting fight with Vergil Ortiz Jr, says he’d do it next

With Vergil Ortiz Jr set to return to the ring on July 24 — a tentative date for Golden Boy’s return to business — a fellow unbeaten Golden Boy welterweight prospect sounds like he’d be up for standing across the ring that night.

Rashidi Ellis (22-0, 14 KO) recently told Jess Rosales that he wants to fight anybody at 147 pounds, but that he sees Ortiz as an easy fight to make given the promotional situations.

“I want to fight everybody, but it’s hard to get fights from the people from PBC, and the only person I see from Golden Boy that’s making noise is Vergil Ortiz, so I’d like to fight him,” Ellis said.

Asked if he had any specific message to Ortiz (15-0, 15 KO), he came pretty simple and direct.

“Let’s make the fight happen. I’ll kick your ass,” he said with a laugh. “That’s how it should be! If you wanna fight, let’s fight. That’s how it was when I was a kid.”

The 22-year-old Ortiz may be Golden Boy’s legitimate best prospect, depending on how you feel about Ryan Garcia, while the 27-year-old Ellis has been a bit quieter as a prospect but impressive himself. He made some waves when he beat Eddie Gomez in 79 seconds back in 2016, and when they rematched last year — with Gomez coming in fighting very well in recent outings — Ellis showed it was no fluke by dominating Gomez over 10 rounds.

Ortiz last fought on Dec. 13 of last year, stopping veteran Brad Solomon in the fifth round. It was a third straight really impressive showing from Ortiz against veteran fighters, following knockout wins over Mauricio Herrera and Antonio Orozco.