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Repping Texas- Vergil Ortiz Jr., Hector Tanajara and Joshua Franco

Those Texas boys are at it again.
Welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. led a media workout for his upcoming clash with Brad Solomon on Friday, Dec. 13, at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio. He was joined by fellow Longhorns Joshua Franco and Hector Tanajara.
All three Texans live and train in the hills of Riverside, California. The San Antonio faction Franco and Tanajara are darn near being Californians after five years spent at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. Dallas native Ortiz Jr. only has two years in Riverside but a couple in Indio too.
Southern California works for them.
âI know all the places to go to now,â said Tanajara at the RGBA gym in Riverside on Tuesday. âWe have our favorite places to go for Mexican food.â
Ortiz canât afford to talk about food; he has an important date coming soon and maintaining weight remains a priority. Heâs also banging on the doors of the upper tier in the welterweight rankings. Itâs just a matter of time.
The compound where the fighters live and train recently expanded and a virtual army of prizefighters are available to glove up at any time. Because of the pure numbers they seldom need to venture outside for sparring.
âSometimes we get fighters from other places to come here,â said Ortiz, 21. âBut we donât go outside too many times.â
Knockouts seem to happen whenever Ortiz touches his foes but itâs not a goal. The slender power-punching welterweight prefers the mental warfare between prizefighters – deciphering an opponentâs style appeals to him like a game of speed chess.
âYou could say I like adapting and overcoming other fighterâs styles,â said Ortiz who has trained under Robert Garcia for nearly two years now. âIâm always looking for clues.â
Vergil Ortiz Sr. the father, also lives in Riverside and both like to work on picking apart an opponentâs technique and style. It keeps them up hours after they leave the boxing compound.
âMost people think he wants to blow them out but thatâs not the case,â said Ortiz Sr. âHeâs a boxer first. He can box, itâs just that heâs knocked them out before he can show people what he can really do.â
Ortiz Jr. (14-0, 14 KOs) will be facing the elusive style of Solomon (28-1, 9 KOs) at Fantasy Springs next week. The Golden Boy Promotions card will be shown by DAZN.
Solomon has not lost in three years and that was by split decision. The nearly six-foot welterweight fights out of Georgia and has beaten some talented contenders like Ray Robinson, Adrian Granados and Freddy Hernandez.
Fighting different boxing approaches like Solomonâs appeals to Ortiz.
âI like figuring out how to beat different styles. Itâs fun,â said Ortiz who has six first round knockouts and has never fought past the sixth round. âIâve learned a lot about pacing and strategy since Iâve been here.â
Ortiz canât wait to enter the bigger stage, but business first next week. The father Ortiz Sr. foresees his son in a mega fight especially in his adopted home Southern California.
âIâd love to see Vergil fight in Los Angeles where the big boxing fans are,â said Ortiz Sr. âLos Angeles has the best boxing fans.â
San Antonio
Joshua Franco and Hector Tanajara both return home on Jan. 11, when they are scheduled to fight on the undercard of the Jaime Munguia middleweight clash with Gary OâSullivan at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Itâs an exciting homecoming for the duo.
Tanajara has never fought professionally in his hometown. The closest he fought to San Antonio was two years ago when he fought in Grand Prairie, Texas, a town located about 300 miles away.

Hector Tanajara
âItâs giving me a lot of motivation to be fighting in San Antonio,â said Tanajara, 22, whose last fight was a defense of the WBC U.S. lightweight title against Ezekiel Aviles that resulted in a win by unanimous decision. âI want to put on a good show.â
The other San Antonio fighter, Josh Franco, has engaged in three of the toughest and most exciting battles of the year. All three wars saw the fighter known as âEl Profesorâ trade bombs with Colombiaâs Oscar Negrete. Franco won once and the other two ended in draws. Now itâs time to decipher the rest of the fight world.
âWeâre going to have a lot of friends and family coming to the Alamodome,â said Franco, 24, who has spent nearly five years in Southern California and now gets an opportunity to fight in front of the hometown crowd. âItâs going to be good.â

Joshua Franco
Neither Tanajara nor Franco has an opponent at this time, but both are scheduled to fight.
âWeâre comfortable here in Riverside, but Iâm not nervous about fighting in San Antonio,â said Franco. âItâs going to be fun.â
Those Texas boys are at it again.
Photos by Al Applerose
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