Vergil Ortiz Jr. is aiming to bounce back from bouts of Covid-19 and rhabdomyolysis when he faces Eimantas Stanionis live on DAZN this weekend.
If he wins he will become the WBA regular welterweight champion and could be in position to challenge for one of the full belts, if not all of them, once the undisputed clash with Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford is resolved.
Ortiz has fought 15 times between 2016-19 but just four times since then, as he has faced cancellations and delays due to ill health.
"I got it around February of 2020 and I got real sick," Ortiz told Yahoo Sports. "That was the sickest I'd ever been. We know all the symptoms, but I literally got the worst of it."
After beating Samuel Vargas in 2020, he struggled despite winning by knockout.
"Even five minutes after the fight, and I still had trouble breathing," he added.
In 2021, he caught Covid once more and sparred with a fellow infected fighter.
"It was sparring, yeah, but we were both sick," he said. "What could we do? We were both effectively dying in there, not being able to breathe. We did what we could. I think I had two weeks, maybe even only one week, of sparring before the Hooker fight. It was horrible, really horrible."
After he fought Maurice Hooker that year, there were further health complications.
"The doctor said, 'Hey, your CK [creatine kinase] level is super high and you're going to die if you keep going like this,'" Ortiz explained.
"It did cross my mind a few times [about not being able to compete again], and it was like, 'Man, what am I going to do?'"
"But I wasn't hopeless. I'd tell myself that it was just another obstacle I have to overcome in my life and I was confident we'd figure it out somehow.
"I have a lot to give in this sport and I have a lot of goals and things I want to accomplish.”