Vergil Ortiz Jnr Confirmed to Fight Keith Thurman in Glendale

Vergil Ortiz Jnr is confirmed to fight Keith Thurman on December 5 in Glendale, Arizona. Ortiz’s return to the ring was announced this week after he reconciled with promoter Oscar De La Hoya earlier in 2026.

Ortiz’s trainer, Robert Garcia, stated that Ortiz will be under pressure to outperform Sebastian Fundora’s performance against Thurman. Garcia said: “That’s the thing that a lot of people might not see and notice that when you’re going against somebody like Thurman, who just looked pretty bad, he got stopped, he got hurt pretty bad against Fundora, then it puts not only Vergil, but ourselves, trainers, we have to know that we have to go out there and perform better than Fundora.”

The Ortiz-Thurman bout is scheduled as the chief support to David Benavidez’s cruiserweight unification with Michael Cieslak.

Ortiz will have been out of the ring for more than a year by the time he faces Thurman.

Thurman is a 37-year-old former unified welterweight champion. He was stopped in six rounds by WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora in March.

The matchup has attracted criticism due to Thurman’s recent loss. Garcia stated that Ortiz cannot allow Thurman to put up a fight, to avoid comparisons with Fundora.

Garcia said: “That’s also going to be pressure for us, for Vergil, that we have to go out there and we can’t allow Thurman to even put up a fight, because if he does, then everybody’s going to be comparing the differences between Fundora and Vergil. Vergil himself has that in mind that he’s got to go out there and perform and take care of business the way Fundora did or even faster than that.”

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