Five months after their original bout was cancelled, Vergil Ortiz Jr and Michael McKinson will finally trade leather as the pair look to defend their unbeaten records.
The duo were scheduled to do battle in March, but Ortiz Jr had to withdraw after being diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, leaving McKinson to fight Alex Martin.
McKinson's unanimous decision victory has put him back on the path to face Ortiz Jr, and a potential world title shot could await the winner.
Ortiz Jr will fancy his chances of wearing down McKinson, with a stoppage victory priced at 3/10.
McKinson is a tricky customer, though, and at 10/11, punters can back the fight to last over 8.5 rounds.
| What: | Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Michael McKinson |
| Where: | Dickies Arena, Forth Worth |
| When: | 04:00, Sunday 7th August 2022 |
| How to watch: | Live on DAZN |
| Odds: | Vergil Ortiz Jr 1/20, Michael McKinson 15/2 |
The fight will take place in the early hours of Sunday 7th August.
The main card is scheduled to start at 02:00, while the main event ring walks should commence at 04:00. These timings could change due to the length of the undercard contests.
The fight takes place at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The full card will be streamed live on DAZN in over 200 countries.
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Ortiz Jr will head into the fight as the overwhelming favourite at odds of 1/20. The 24-year-old is tipped to be a future star of American boxing, while Portsmouth's McKinson is priced at 15/2 to pull off a shock victory.
Neither fighter holds a title, but it is expected that the winner will be given a shot at a world title in the welterweight division.
Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford currently hold all of the belts in the division, with the former currently looking after the WBA, WBC and IBF straps.
While McKinson is not in the top 10 of any of the divisions, Ortiz Jr is ranked number one with the WBA, WBC and WBO.
Should he be victorious against McKinson, he is likely to challenge for world honours towards the turn of the year.
Ortiz Jr's record is a perfect one, with the Texas native winning all 18 of his fights by knockout.
The 24-year-old turned professional in 2016 and has breezed through the rankings so far. In the last two years he has beaten the highly-respected trio of Samuel Vargas, Maurice Hooker and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.
Kavaliauskas has only been stopped in two of his 25 fights, and Ortiz Jr has yet to meet any opponent who can handle his power.
Portsmouth fighter McKinson has also never tasted defeat, with his record standing at 22-0. Unlike Ortiz Jr, McKinson is known for his superior boxing skills and only has two stoppage victories on his CV.
The 28-year-old southpaw will hope to use his ring IQ to outsmart Ortiz Jr, and he does possess enough power to stun opponents, having knocked down Luis Alberto Veron, Martin Harkin and Chris Kongo in the past.
The main card will feature Alex Martin, who McKinson beat earlier this year on points. Martin will clash with Hank Lundy at junior welterweight, while at super-middleweight, Bektemir Melikuziev faces Sladan Janjanin.
One of Ortiz Jr's former opponents, Hooker, will do battle with Blair Cobbs, while the chief support for the main event will be for the WBC and WBA women's flyweight titles as Marlen Esparza prepares to fight Eva Guzman.
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