Vergil Ortiz wants more than an interim 154-pound title.

The hard-hitting Texan doesn’t think newly crowned WBO junior middleweight champ Xander Zayas is serious about fighting him anytime soon. Sebastian Fundora, the true WBC super welterweight champ, is scheduled to defend his title against Keith Thurman on October 25 in Las Vegas.

Terence Crawford, who still owns the WBA belt, said Saturday night after defeating former undisputed super middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez that he won’t come back down to 154. That leaves IBF junior middleweight champ Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Robert Garcia, Ortiz’s trainer, scratched the unbeaten Russian off the list of potential opponents, too. Murtazaliev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, is in negotiations with Josh Kelly’s handlers for them to fight next, but Ortiz wouldn’t consider fighting the winner, either, if he defeats Erickson Lubin on November 8.

Champions and challengers in IBF title fights can only gain a maximum of 10 pounds between official weigh-ins and second-day weigh-ins the following morning.

Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) and Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) therefore wouldn’t be able to weigh more than 164 pounds after they make weight.

That’s a non-starter for Ortiz, who battled rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle condition, toward the end of his run in the welterweight division. Ortiz settled comfortably into his new weight class, but Garcia and the rest of his team remember all too well their fighter’s physical difficulties that caused him to withdraw from three fights in 2022 and '23.

“The IBF champion is also there, available,” Garcia told The Ring. “And that’s probably a fight that can easily be made. But we have to be real, too. The IBF has the next-day weigh-in and you can only gain 10 pounds. And that’s not gonna work with Vergil. We’re not gonna risk him.

“That’ll be hurting him, especially with what he’s been through in his life health-wise. After the weigh-in, we need to right away feed him, we need to give him everything he needs to recuperate and to be strong for the next day. We can’t hold his body to only gain 10 pounds for the next day, in the morning. That’s impossible for Vergil. So, the IBF is also out of the picture because of that.”

DAZN will stream Ortiz-Lubin as a 12-round main event from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Ortiz, of nearby Grand Prairie, is listed by most sportsbooks as a 6-1 favorite to beat Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs), a southpaw from Orlando, Florida.