I'm surprised he's on welterweight division, it's a same division with Crawford and Spence, but this boxer never want to challenge a world champion. He's not really cherry pick his opponent since his opponent also have a good record, I think he's more focus about his record rather than making his name bigger by getting a belt. It's the first time I hear his name, maybe he wanted to get the belt when Crawford vs Spence have happened, so he will likely join the vacant belt.
But his last fight, a comeback fight was a cherry pick right? he fight someone who doesn't have good KO record, but he gave Vergil everything he had, but unfortunately, his corner throw in the towel. Not sure if he is injured or something or the body shot really took the toll on him. Nevertheless, Golden Boy really needs to step the plate for their fighter and give them championship fight to see how good Vergil is or just another hype fighter.
I do think it is but his opponent is not a bad fighter. It was cherry-picked probably because Egidijus Kavaliauskas lost by TKO when he fight Terence Crawford. But despite that, the guy's record is quite impressive with 21 wins 1 loss wherein 18 is by the way of KO before they fight. So this guy has the punching power to KO his opponent. It is that Vergil Ortiz Jr. is way better. And not being popular doesn't mean the fighter is trash. Pacquiao was unpopular on the other side of the world before he fights Ledwaba.
Hmm, I'm not sure if we are in the same page, Vergil last opponent was Michael McKinson, you can look at his boxrec record here:
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/697918.
The guy has 8.7% knock out ratio, so not sure where you get the numbers of 18 wins by KO?
So he has no punching power whatsoever, it was evident in the fight, what McKinson has is that he has a big heart in the ring that despite he was being down by a body shot and he seems to have injured himself, he keeps on fighting until his corner stop it.