Worcester boxer Jamaine "The Technician" Ortiz returns to ring on Friday
It’s been 11 months since Jamaine “The Technician” Ortiz stepped into a boxing ring to face an opponent.
And on that late October night, the Worcester lightweight gave two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-division world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko all he could handle over 12 rounds before losing by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.
Ortiz was scheduled to fight in June, but had to pull out after a back injury contributed mightily to his not making weight.
“The back is good, and I’m just super excited to be back,” Ortiz, 27, said Tuesday via phone from Corpus Christi, Texas, where he’ll meet Mexican veteran Antonio Moran on Friday night in a 10-round bout at a contract weight of 138 pounds at American Bank Center.
Ortiz-Moran is on the undercard of the Luis Alberto Lopez-Joet Gonzalez main event for the IBF featherweight world title. The undercard gets underway at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with the main event shown on ESPN starting at 10 p.m.
Ortiz, a 2014 graduate of Doherty High, arrived in Texas on Monday and is tapering down his training.
“I’m just doing light workouts to shed off the last couple of pounds and stuff like that,” he said.
His preparation for the fight took him to Las Vegas and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Ortiz, an avid traveler, spent about eight weeks in Dubai beginning in late July. It was his latest visit to the modern and international coastal city of 3.3 million that sits on the Persian Gulf.
“I’ve been there like 10 times so far,” Ortiz said. “I went there for the training, the coaching over there is great. The culture, it’s cheaper than it is in Massachusetts, the convenience of everything. There’s always something to do and it stays open late.”
Then he spent close to three weeks working out in Las Vegas, where he was able to focus on the fight and get in some quality sparring.
Ortiz will enter the ring with a 16-1-1 record (8 KOs) and, per boxrec.com, as the sixth ranked lightweight in the United States and the 11th in the world.
Moran, 30, comes in with a 29-5-1 mark that includes 20 knockouts, so he’s got some punching power. He’s ranked sixth in his native Mexico and 64th in the world among super lightweights.
"He’s a good fighter with decent power," Ortiz said via Providence-based CES Boxing, which promotes him along with Top Rank, which is putting on Friday’s card.
“He almost has twice as many fights as me, but over the last year I’ve been in the ring with two former world champions, one of which is probably a sure shot hall of famer.”
The HoFer would be Lomachenko. Prior to that, Ortiz got the better of former WBO junior lightweight champ Jamel Herring over 10 rounds to win by unanimous decision in May of 2022 in Las Vegas.
Ortiz had his sights set on returning to the ring in quick fashion after this bout, ideally to face the undefeated and two-division world champion Shakur Stevenson in mid-November or, possibly, early December.
Those plans won’t come to fruition, though, as Stevenson agreed to meet Dominican lefty Edwin De Los Santos on Nov. 16 for the vacant WBC lightweight belt in Las Vegas.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester boxer Jamaine "The Technician" Ortiz returns to ring on Friday
