Ortiz vs Hooker results and highlights: Vergil Ortiz Jr stops Maurice Hooker in firefight, Seniesa Estrada wins first world title

Vergil Ortiz Jr kept the hype train rolling strong tonight, passing an important and tough test against former titleholder Maurice Hooker, winning a seventh round stoppage in Fort Worth, Texas.

In front of a near-home crowd for both Dallas-based fighters, Ortiz (17-0, 17 KO) was the obvious fan favorite, but he took some heat from Hooker (27-2-3, 18 KO), too, as the two got into some really good exchanges in what was a very entertaining fight.

Hooker definitely won some rounds — or at least had solid arguments in them — before being dropped late in the sixth due to some strong body work from the younger fighter. Hooker came out for the seventh gunning for Ortiz, but was down again less than a minute into the round, and retired from the fight there with a hand injury (or two).

The 22-year-old Ortiz gave Hooker earned respect, as you would expect from him.

“He didn’t have to take this fight. I give him props,” Ortiz said. “I felt like I did pretty good. There’s always room for improvement, always. I could have done a lot of things better. He was durable, he could definitely take a punch. He was smart, he tried to get around my guard. I just knew what to do.”

Ortiz spoke more of Hooker’s durability, saying head shots weren’t hurting him so he went to the body. And then he made the big statement: he wants a world title fight, and he wants it now.

“I’m ready for a title shot. Whoever’s willing to give me the opportunity,” he said. “I’m not going to call anyone a bum, I’m not like that at all. I respect every fighter who gets in the ring. I do my talking in the ring.”

With WBO titlist Terence Crawford — who trains with Hooker — in attendance, he directed some comments toward Crawford, who earlier in the night had dismissed the idea.

“I would love that opportunity. Crawford is possibly the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world, definitely top two,” Ortiz said. “If they want to give me that opportunity, I’m more than willing to do it. I don’t care if I’m ‘ready’ or not, I want that fight.”

Hooker had his disagreements with the crowd post-fight when he said he hurt both hands before the stoppage, but overall was complimentary toward Ortiz.

“It was a good fight, Vergil’s a good guy and a good fighter,” Hooker said. “I’ve been off for a year and a half. I had to get through the storm in the first three rounds. I started getting my rhythm, but he’s a good fighter, man.

Asked where Ortiz ranks among the best fighters he’s faced, Hooker shied away from a concrete answer, but offered his honest assessment of a potential Crawford-Ortiz fight.

“He’s young and up and coming, but there’s levels to this. I’ve been in there with the best,” he said. “Trying to get Terence Crawford, I don’t know. He’s good, man, Vergil’s good but he’s not ready, man. I’m being honest. I love Vergil, but he’s not ready. Build himself up, he’s going to be a world champion someday.”

Seniesa Estrada UD-10 Anabel Ortiz

Estrada wins her first world title, dropping down to 105 to find a champ willing to fight her, and taking the belt from Ortiz, who had held the strap since beating Etsuko Tada in 2014.

Ortiz (31-4, 4 KO) gave a solid effort, but Estrada (20-0, 8 KO) was just too good, too strong, too fast, too athletic. She’s one of the legit top rising fighters of this new generation of women’s boxing, if you will, and one of the better punchers on that side of the sport. She put Ortiz down in the second round and had her rocked a couple other times, but the veteran hung in and went the distance, scrapping the whole way.

What Estrada does now is anyone’s guess. Hopefully there’s a unification for her to make, the easiest would probably be against Katia Gutierrez if Gutierrez beats Tina Rupprecht on May 15 in Germany as is currently planned for that fight. That would give Gutierrez the WBC belt.

“I implemented the game plan exactly as we were supposed to,” Estrada said after the win. “She’s been the reigning champion for seven years, defended her title 12 times. She comes to fight, she comes in great condition. I knew she would be very durable the whole fight.”

“I want to unify 105, unify 108, and then fight at 112 and get some world titles there, as well,” she added. Asked about a possible rematch with rival Marlen Esparza, Estrada dismissed her as currently “irrelevant,” and also said she wanted fights with 108-pound titlists Yesenia Gomez and Yesica Bopp.

Undercard Results

• Marcelino Lopez KO-5 Jairo Lopez: This was thrown together on late notice, as this show lost a couple planned co-features along the build-up. It was a junior welterweight fight DAZN insisted on calling welterweight because Marcelino weighed 140.8, which happens all the time for non-title fights at 140. It was a good fight, very fun to watch, and Marcelino (37-2-1, 22 KO) just had too much power for Jairo (27-12, 18 KO), dropping him in the second, third, and fifth rounds, and also getting a ruled knockdown in the fourth which was actually a shove.

• Tristan Kalkreuth KO-1 Dustin Long: Kalkreuth is a 19-year-old cruiserweight, a prospect Golden Boy like a lot. He’s young, filling out to proper cruiserweight shape, has natural power and is a really good athlete. Long is a 38-year-old combat veteran, he’s done boxing, MMA, kickboxing — the guy knows how to fight. Kalkreuth just trucked him in 78 seconds, absolutely bombed him out of there with aggression, speed, and power, a body shot the real end to things. Long (4-2-2, 4 KO) was down a long time and the hope is he’ll be OK. Kalkreuth is now 8-0 (6 KO) and still learning on the job, but he really does look like a strong prospect, and his hope is to stay at cruiserweight long enough to win some titles before eventually someday going to heavyweight.