FORT WORTH, Texas – Despite not being at 100 percent on Saturday, Vergil Ortiz Jr. kept his unbeaten record and perfect knockout ratio intact.

Ortiz dropped former junior welterweight titlist Maurice Hooker in the sixth round of their scheduled 12-round welterweight affair before a lively audience at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. In Round 7, Hooker suffered a hand injury, which forced referee Laurence Cole to stop the fight.

Speaking to The Ring after the bout, Hooker (27-2-3, 18 KOs), who dropped the second of his last three fights, said that he would have performed better under different circumstances.

“I was out for a year-and-a-half,” he stated. “If they let me get back and get fresh, hit me up.”

But it’s safe to say that Hooker probably won’t be hearing from Ortiz any time soon.

In an exclusive interview from Ortiz’s locker room following his victory, he revealed that he had his own plethora of issues coming into the fight.

“I had Covid in February,” Ortiz revealed. “I couldn’t spar for like three weeks.

“I was feeling horrible. I was under quarantine and I had to spar for two weeks literally every day. I had to spar five 12-rounders back-to-back.”

That being said, a rematch would do nothing for Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs).

“I don’t see a point in the rematch,” he added. “I felt like I was pretty dominant in the fight.

“This was a hard camp. I had to overcome so many adversities. There were three solid reasons for me to cancel the fight, and we almost did.”

Ortiz admitted that he did not want to provide the other details. However, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated discovered that the rising welterweight star was dealing with a significant injury to his arm last week and just days before the fight was having trouble lifting it.

“If I had a better camp, you would have seen a better Vergil. And look at what I did.”

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