Monday night a Nevada judge ruled in favor of promoter Oscar De La Hoya in the legal battle his unbeaten junior middleweight Vergil Oritz and that means that a potential deal with fellow unbeaten contender Jaron "Boots" Ennis won't be happening anytime soon.
If you were hopoing for a Spring showdown between elite junior middleweights Vergil Ortiz and Jaron “Boots” Ennis, it looks like that's all but over. This comes after Golden Boy Promotions and Oscar De La Hoya, which represents Ortiz, secured a legal victory in U.S. District Court in Nevada on Monday night keeping Ortiz from making the fight with Ennis without Golden Boy.
Judge Cristina Silva issued an eight-page ruling granting De La Hoya’s company interim injunctive relief. The order blocks Ortiz for the foreseeable future from moving forward with a contract to face Ennis, a fight that had been originally targeted for March 28 and later April 18th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In addition, Judge Silva, who had heard from the legal parties in a February 20th hearing, directed Ortiz and Golden Boy Promotions to resolve the dispute through arbitration. This is just as Golden Boy had contended was in their agreement and it's a process that could stretch on for months.
So, as a result, Ennis and his promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, are expected to pursue alternative opponents rather than wait for the legal fuss with Golden Boy and Ortiz to conclude.
This all stems from Ortiz being angered that De La Hoya was jeopardizing the Ennis bout by wanting to reopen negotiations for the highly intriguing Ennis fight to be held in March and televised by DAZN.
Ortiz and his management then sued De La Hoya/Golden Boy in January for jeopardizing the fight and claiming that their promotional contract could be voided, because De La Hoya's broadcast deal with DAZN was expiring at the end of calendar 2025.
De La Hoya counter-sued and got the injunctive relief in early February.
The Nevada judge focused on two things- the arbitration provisions in the deal and the timeliness of the injunction.
She wrote,
“The totality of Golden Boy’s actions does not indicate that it waived its right to arbitration. Rather, its actions are consistent with its right to enforce the arbitration provision of (Ortiz’s promotional) agreement. Accordingly, I grant Golden Boy’s motion to compel arbitration.
Further, because I find that this action is arbitrable, injunctive relief is necessary to preserve the status quo.
Thus, I also grant Golden Boy’s request for interim injunctive relief to allow for meaningful arbitration, so I hereby order that Ortiz may not negotiate or contract with third parties for future fights before the arbitrator addresses the parties’ dispute set forth in this action.”
That clear victory for Golden Boy means that the arbitration process, which could ta months, stymies Ortiz from doing a deal and likely, means he won't fight anyone in the short term. De La Hoya took to social media late Monday to proclaim vindication legally,
Ortiz's team could try an emergency appeal to the Nevada State Court of Appeals, but it's probably a long shot to get a reversal and in a timely fashion to make the Ennis fight.
As for the unbeaten former unified welterweight champ Ennis, he's likely to look elsewhere, including a possible title shot at 154 lb.
Hearn told DAZN this weekend in Arizona on their live broadcast of the Emanuel Navarrete championship TKO win over Eduardo Nuez, "if we can’t get Vergil Ortiz, then the target we want is Xander Zayas (who is the WBA/WBO champ) and if we can’t get him, we have another Matchroom fighter, Josh Kelly, who just won the IBF title. That’s another opportunity as well.”
Now, it's apparently Ennis' move.