Golden Boy Makes Ortiz-Hooker Official For March in Texas

Tuesday morning Golden Boy Promotions confirmed that the upcoming Welterweight title contender showdown between unbeaten Vergil Ortiz and former 140 lb. world title holder Maurice Hooker will take place in March and where it will take place.

Golden Boy will have Ortiz-Hooker in the Dickies Arena in Ft. Worth, Texas, with fans able to attend socially distanced,

SEE YOU, SOON! ?@VergilOrtiz vs @mightymohooker is headed to @DickiesArena in Forth Worth, TX!

Tickets on sale Friday, Feb 5 at 10:00am CT! @ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/jW0t1XDLio

— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) February 2, 2021

The Dickies Arena is a 14,000 seat capacity facility under normal circumstances, which opened in October of 2019. It’s primarily been a concert venue, but has hosted college basketball and professional bull-ring events. This will be the first time ever for a big time boxing card to be held there.

As we wrote previously, the two Dallas, Texas natives will fight on March 20 over 12 rounds for the vacant WBO “International ” Welterweight Title. Terence Crawford holds the World Boxing Organization’s “World” championship at 147 lb.

The 22 year old Ortiz has created buzz over the course of the last couple of years. This, as he has begun his professional career with 16 consecutive KOs. He was last in action back in July and as we wrote then, he demolished veteran Sammy Vargas. Ortiz was headlining the first show back, post Covid 19 shutdown of the sport for three months, for Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN streaming.

As for Hooker (27-1-3 18 KOs), he was last in the ring in July of 2019. That’s when he fought José Ramírez in a Unification bout for two of the 140 lb. titles in Dallas. The pair served up a back-and-forth shootout that Ramirez won via stoppage in the sixth round of a hard fought contest.

That handed Hooker his first pro loss costing him his WBO belt.

Hooker was to have fought former WBA Jr. Lightweight champ, Regis Prograis, in an elimination bout for title contention last April. However, that fight was scuttled by the Coronavirus pandemic. And, Hooker struggled to be able to make weight at 140 lb. any longer.

Tickets will go on sale Friday and it’s expected that somewhere around 4,000 fans maximum will be allowed to attend in the arena.