After his destruction of Erickson Lubin, Vergil Ortiz Jr. had a moment to enjoy his victory during the in-ring post-fight interview with Chris Mannix on Saturday night in Fort Worth, TX. Instead, he chose to call over Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis for a face-off, which set social media on fire as the buzz for this fight is at its peak. But this boxing, and somehow or someway, these fights that should happen at peak buzz, end up over-marinating (i.e., Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence Jr.), leaving the fight to occur much later, with fans asking, “what if”? Will Ortiz vs. Ennis get made in 2026, or will boxing once again get us all excited for nothing?
The saga between Ortiz (24-0, 22 KOs) and Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) goes back to earlier this year, when it appeared they were heading towards a meeting this fall. The Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority for Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh, was even involved in the negotiations, making the financial demands for such a fight an afterthought. The result of the talks was that, according to Alalshikh and Team Ortiz, Ennis needed a tune-up fight or two at junior middleweight to get accustomed to the new weight class. This had boxing fans on social media up in arms, as Ennis is an elite-level fighter and spoke of fighting only the big names at 154 after beating Eimantas Stanionis for the WBA welterweight title.
So at this time, Ennis went in a different direction, facing Uisma Lima, while Ortiz faced Erickson Lubin. Ennis stopped Lima in the first round of their October fight, and Ortiz stopped Lubin in the second round of their fight. After Ennis and Ortiz stopped their opponents in dominant fashion, the appetite for their fight is at an all-time high. It’s the reason Ortiz called Ennis to face off in the ring. Ortiz and Ennis were jaw-jacking and getting everyone in the arena excited about their potential 2026 fight, but are we setting ourselves up to get disappointed again?
The Business of Boxing-Ugh
After the Ortiz-Lubin fight, Golden Boy Boxing’s Oscar De La Hoya, noticeably missing from the in-ring post-fight interview, stood at the podium of the post-fight press conference and seemed excited about what he had just witnessed. So much so that he went on to claim that he would make a certain phone call soon. De La Hoya told reporters, “I can’t wait to call my friend Jerry Jones and talk about bringing Vergil (Ortiz Jr.) to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.” At that same presser, De La Hoya said multiple times that as long as the “terms are favorable,” when asked about how realistic Ortiz-Ennis truly is. It’s not uncommon to hear that from a promoter, as he is supposed to say that, but when that becomes the first thing you hear after the buzz for Ortiz-Ennis is at its peak, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for hope.
The next day, Ortiz’s manager, Rick Mirigian, posted on Instagram, “I think Ortiz vs. Spence at Cowboy Stadium (biggest all-Texas matchup in history) and Charlo vs. Boots as co-main and the winners fight each other just might be fire (Makes sense, Charlo and Boots both turned Ortiz down).” Then on Monday, Mirigian and veteran boxing reporter Dan Rafael went back and forth on X when Rafael posted that he believes “Ortiz wants the fight, not so sure about his promoter or manager.” That sparked Mirigian to reply by saying, “Shame on you, ‘not so sure’… send an offer that says this is the biggest fight in the sport on over and this gets done in 15 minutes on our side. That simple.” This could be Mirigian using his platform to get DAZN to add more money to the pot and/or for Matchroom to give in a little.
Either way, when words like “favorable terms” and “offer” begin to circulate on social media almost instantly, it spells trouble. The problem will lie in getting De La Hoya and Hearn to agree on the fight, as they both feel they have a star on their hands. Two things are lingering out there that could get in the way and push Ortiz-Ennis to a later date: the WBC ordering the winner of Sebastian Fundora vs. Keith Thurman to face Ortiz next, and the WBA or WBO ordering the winner of Xander Zayas vs. Abass Baraou to face Ennis next. It could be sold as they could then potentially meet for a three-belt unification, but a lot would have to happen, and with boxing, those types of plans almost never work out.
Everyone wants to see Ortiz-Ennis next as it’s the biggest fight that can be made in the U.S. between two American fighters. All the boxing community hopes is that the fight can be made in 2026. If not, this will be a missed opportunity to showcase two of boxing’s best, undefeated young fighters.
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