Matchroom Boxing reportedly made a significant offer to sign Golden Boy Promotions-aligned super welterweight boxer Vergil Ortiz, and they weren’t the only of Oscar de la Hoya’s rivals to allegedly do so.
Ortiz is one of the best fighters in all boxing, with 22 knockouts from 24 wins, including three successive victories over top tier names like Serhii Bohachuk, Israil Madrimov, and Erickson Lubin, whom he eviscerated with a second-round knockout, earlier this year, before long-time rival Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis entered the ring and the pair engaged in a cinematic face-off live on DAZN.
The lack of the Ennis fight to date is a core part of Ortiz’s complaint against his promoter.
The unbeaten 27-year-old filed a lawsuit in Nevada federal court seeking to terminate the deal, alleging breach of contract and interference with his economic opportunities, particularly around stalled negotiations for the high-profile fight with ‘Boots’.
Golden Boy, meanwhile, has argued that its deal is valid, insists Ortiz remains under its control, and a temporary restraining order has blocked Ortiz from independently pursuing other deals while the case unfolds in court.
As Chris Mannix detailed in a series of posts on X, those deals appear to be very real.
Per Mannix, Ortiz filed this week an opposition to the temporary restraining order Golden Boy received to block the Ortiz-Ennis bout.
The suit said boxing manager Rick Mirigian presented Ortiz with a promoter’s offer to fight Ennis and said he’d be “benched”, with no other bout agreements forthcoming, if the fighter “did not agree to the fight.”
According to Mannix:
“The filing says Ortiz was offered a three-fight deal from Matchroom, which included an Apr. 18th date against Ennis, that guaranteed Ortiz $12 million and could have been worth $20 million.”
“Ortiz was also offered a deal by another promoter that would have guaranteed him $16 million, plus upside based on ticket and pay-per-view sales of the bouts.”
DAZN, which has a broadcast arrangement with Golden Boy, seemingly backs Ortiz in the dispute. The broadcaster’s chief operating officer, Edward McCarthy, said he’d testify under oath his “opposition” to Golden Boy’s motion for the “temporary restraining order.”
In the suit, it says DAZN’s long-term distribution deal with Golden Boy “expired on Dec. 31, 2025” and “despite DAZN’s offer to extend such long-term distribution contract, whilst the new long-term agreement was finalized and agreed.”
Since the start of the year, it said, there has been no “long-term” broadcast relationship and any GBP events its aired this year have been on a standalone basis.
The case continues.