Jeremy Ortiz, 20, started boxing in elementary school in Forest Park. Though he dabbled in taekwondo, judo, plus football and basketball, he eventually settled on boxing.
“Jeremy was more inclined to throw his hands than use his other parts of his body,” said David Ortiz Jr., Jeremy’s father and coach through middle school and high school.
Now, a decade later, Jeremy is a professional boxer. He won his first professional tournament last year, expanding his brand by training in California and consulting for a boxing-themed production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
“That helped amplify his name, his presence, his face, his work, but also potentially his network,” David said.
When he first started the sport, Jeremy competed in a handful of boxing matches, then enrolled in tournaments. The first tournament was the 2015 Silver Gloves, a national amateur boxing competition.
Jeremy seasoned his career by training at the Chicago Youth Boxing Club in Little Village. When he left the club at 16, Jeremy had been nationally ranked for two years in a row, and David was an Illinois coach for the U.S. national team.
In 2021, the Ortizes opened the Barracks Boxing Gym, located between Chicago’s Hermosa and Logan Square neighborhoods. There, Jeremy is the head coach and runs classes when he’s not training.
In 2022, Jeremy won in his weight class at the national amateur boxing tournament, the Golden Gloves. That year, he was also invited to the U.S. Olympic qualifier trials, where he advanced to the quarter finals.
Last July, Jeremy competed in his first professional boxing tournament in Rosemont.
Though amateur boxing is often fast-paced, professional boxing is a completely different style – there’s an extra round, the gloves are smaller and the boxers don’t wear headgear.
“The biggest difference you’ll find is the amateur will throw a lot of punches and try to score fast,” David said. “Whereas the pro will focus a little bit more on energy and the patterns, and then try to deliver on timing and power.”
“For amateurs, it’s all about points. For me, it was more about how many punches I can get off and land on the guy,” Jeremy said. “Whereas a pro — because you have no headgear, you have smaller gloves — you feel more of the punches, so it’s a lot more dangerous. That’s why you have to be a lot smarter about how you fight.”
After his professional boxing win, Jeremy started consistently training at Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in California.
“California’s got some of the best talent in the whole country when it comes to boxing,” David said. “Robert is a world-class trainer. He’s trained some of the biggest names in the history of boxing.”
After David called Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, Garcia invited Jeremy to attend a week-long camp there in 2022. Since Jeremy won his professional tournament last year, he’s gone on multi-week training stints to the academy.
As Jeremy’s promoter, David covers the cost of his travel, outfits, plus training at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. But David, who works as a national account executive in the consumer package goods industry during the day, hopes another promoter will step in soon.
“The goal is to get a pretty high-level promotional deal at some point,” David said. “We’re right on the cusp of something. There’s three boxes you have to check when you go pro for anybody to put a light on you: Are you from a big market? Are you actually good? Can he sell tickets?”
David adds, “As long as those three boxes stay checked, the next couple fights, he should have something on his radar sooner than later.”
Last year, the Ortizes were hired as boxing consultants for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s performance of “Champion.” The show, which ran through Feb. 11, follows the story of Emile Griffith, a bisexual boxer whose blows in the ring killed his opponent in 1962.
“I never would have thought I’d attend, much less be working with them,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t really know what to expect.” But he soon learned his role: to make the cast look like boxers.
At the start of the show’s rehearsals — seven days a week, 3-to-6 hours a day, with help from his father — Jeremy helped Justin Austin, the actor playing Griffith, practice boxing scenes. He showed him how to position his arms and feet, and how to throw punches.
“Seeing it all come together and seeing the final piece was a very enjoyable experience and, honestly, probably could open some new doors for us,” Jeremy said. “For my boxing career, I really want to shoot for the stars. I want to be a world champion, and I want to be the next biggest thing for Chicago.”
This year, Jeremy has won two fights in Rosemont. David plans to sign Jeremy up for four others before the end of the year, with the next one being out-of-state so his son can have a celebrated return to the Chicago area.
David said, “Hopefully we can bring a big fight back home.”
