A proposed fight between Vergil Ortiz Jr and David Avanesyan is in danger of falling apart.
Last month it was revealed that the two welterweights would collide on August 6 in Texas but Ortiz’ manager Rick Mirigan has accused the European welterweight champion of “running away”.
In a lengthy post on social media Mirigan said that the Russian had “sat on a contract for two weeks and team saying it’s signed, told the promoters it’s signed and it’s a go then won’t send it back”.
He then added that as of Monday morning (July 6) Avanesyan’s team would be out of time to get the opportunity to secure the fight against the unbeaten star.
“Golden Boy (Ortiz promoter) did everything they wanted, accommodated their every crazy need they asked for and Vergil even kicked in some money to help make the fight.
“They agreed to the deal and then never would send the actual contract back and started playing games after. You wanted the fight and you got it so sign and send it in or go after a belt that they sell at WalMart!”
That post was from three days ago. The Monday deadline has now also been and gone and there has been nothing else said since. However, Boxing Social did reach out to Avanesyan’s promoter Frank Warren, and we asked if the fight was off.
“It isn’t at the moment,” he replied. “We are working on it.”
Following Mirigan’s post Michael McKinson’s manager Lee Eaton said his man was ready to face Ortiz. The British welterweight then added, “Send the same contract as before? No problem.”
Ortiz and McKinson had been scheduled to take on one another in March but the bout was pulled during fight week when the American was hospitalised having been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.