Jamaine Ortiz heads into his first world title fight with Teofimo Lopez this Thursday at the Michelob Arena in Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, was defeated by Vasiliy Lomachenko via unanimous decision close to 18 months ago in New York. Ortiz put on a decent display against the modern great, with one judge scoring the bout close at 115-113.
Lopez had snatched the IBF, WBA and WBO lightweight titles at the MGM Grand two years before.
The pair meet at a weight class above for Lopez’s WBO super-lightweight belt this week in Vegas, having previously met in the amateur system as youngsters, with Lopez coming out on top.
“My camp has been a little bit different for this world title fight,” Ortiz said in an exclusive interview for ProBox TV. “We added another coach to the team, we are just switching things up a little bit around. We have definitely been working on our flaws and what I need to get better and stronger at. We are all very excited to see the best version of Jamaine Ortiz February 8.
“Things will be different, very different. You are all going to see a whole different tactic. I’m going to knock him out. I don’t know if it is going to be early, or late, I just know that I’m gonna win this by knockout.”
Ortiz, 17-1-1 (8KOs, moves up to 140 pounds after a career at lightweight. He has not scored a knockout win in five fights, his last coming against Sulaiman Segawa in November, 2020.
His knockout ratio is also below 50 per cent.
