Ortiz vs Hooker: Fight headed to Fort Worth, Vergil expects toughest fight to date

With Golden Boy welterweight prospects Vergil Ortiz officially scheduled to take on Maurice Hooker on March 20th on DAZN, the fight now has a venue set, as it will take place at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, about 40 minutes from Dallas, the hometown of both fighters.

“I’m very happy to be fighting in front of my friends, family, and fans back at home again,” said Ortiz. “Dickies Arena is a perfect sized venue, and it looks like it will be able to hold a substantial number of fans, so everybody needs to come out and support all the fighters. I’m really hyped for this fight.”

“I’m excited to be fighting so close to home where my family, friends and hometown fans can come out and support my return to the ring,” said Hooker. “With Vergil and I both being from the Dallas area, this is a fight that had to happen in the DFW metroplex. We are going to put on one hell of a show for all of our hometown fans on March 20 at Dickies Arena.”

Ortiz tells RingTV that he’s extremely excited for what he sees as his toughest bout to date — at least on paper.

“This is going to be big. We prepare for every fight the same way. We treat them as if they are the hardest fight of my career. In this case, it actually is. We’re training hard.”

Despite Ortiz coming into the fight with a slight height and reach disadvantage against Hooker, he’s not making much of it as he says he’s grown accustomed to squaring off with bigger fighters in the ring, often sparring larger men, including super middleweight Alexis Espino.

At age 22, Ortiz (16-0, 16 KOs) enters this bout coming off a knockout win over Samuel Vargas last summer, with every fight he’s had ending by stoppage thus far. Meanwhile at age 31, Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs) just bounced back with a stoppage win over Uriel Perez in December 2019, one fight removed from having his junior welterweight title taken by Jose Ramirez in their unification bout. Hooker had be in discussions to face Regis Prograis for much of last year, but that fight never came together before Hooker decided to move up to campaign at welterweight.

But if Ortiz is everything Golden Boy tells us he is (and surely hopes that he is), this should be a fight for Ortiz to make a legitimate statement for himself going forward.