Jamaine Ortiz flexed his muscles, smiled and beat his chest Wednesday afternoon after he made weight in Las Vegas.
Teofimo Lopez mostly smiled as they faced off for the final time before their 140-pound title fight Thursday night. Minutes earlier, Lopez and Ortiz weighed exactly the same amount, 139.6 pounds, when they stepped on the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s scale.
Now that they’ve met their contractual obligations, they’ll fight for Lopez’s WBO junior welterweight title in a 12-round main event ESPN will televise from Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) will make his first defense of a WBO belt he won from Scotland’s Josh Taylor. Las Vegas’ Lopez beat Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder June 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
DraftKings lists Lopez as a 7-1 favorite over Ortiz, who has lost only a 12-round unanimous decision to Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2022 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Lopez memorably beat Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) two years earlier in their lightweight title unification fight at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
The official weights for the eight fights on the Lopez-Ortiz undercard are listed below.
ESPN; ESPN Deportes; ESPN+
10:30 p.m. ET; 7:30 p.m. PT
Keyshawn Davis (9-0, 6 KOs, 1 NC), Norfolk, Virginia, 134.7 pounds vs. Jose Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs), Cidra, Puerto Rico, 134.5 pounds, 10 rounds, lightweights.
ESPN+
6:30 p.m. ET; 3:30 p.m. PT
George Acosta (17-1, 3 KOs), Whittier, California, 131.3 pounds vs. Rene Tellez Giron (18-3, 12 KOs), Queretero, Mexico, 132 pounds, 10 rounds, lightweights.
Javier Martinez (9-0-1, 3 KOs), Milwaukee, 161.6 pounds vs. Raul Salomon (12-2, 10 KOs), Long Beach, California, 164.4 pounds, 8 rounds, super middleweights.
Abdullah Mason (11-0, 9 KOs), Cleveland, 135.3 pounds vs. Benjamin Gurment (8-0-3, 5 KOs), Fort Worth, Texas, 136.8 pounds, 8 rounds, junior welterweights.
Charlie Sheehy (8-0, 5 KOs), Brisbane, California, 135.7 pounds vs. Abdel Sauceda (12-3, 8 KOs), Monterrey, Mexico, 135.4 pounds, 8 rounds, junior welterweights.
Alan Garcia (10-0, 8 KOs), Ulysses, Kansas, 136.6 pounds vs. Tomas Ornelas (7-3, 5 KOs), Denver, 134.6 pounds, 6 rounds, junior welterweights.
Antonio Zepeda (6-1, 6 KOs), Des Moines, Iowa, 299.7 pounds vs. Lemir Isom Riley (3-2, 1 KO, 1 NC), New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, 257 pounds, 6 rounds, heavyweights.
Art Barrera Jr. (2-0, 2 KOs), Paramount, California, 141 pounds vs. Michael Portales (3-2-1, 1 KO), Hayward, California, 140 pounds, 4 rounds, welterweights.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.