The case is stayed pending arbitration, with the parties required to provide a status update by September 2, 2026, or within five days of an arbitrator’s decision. Until that process plays out, Ortiz cannot negotiate with outside promoters.
Ennis, 35-0 with 31 knockouts, moved to 154 pounds with a first-round stoppage last October in Philadelphia and has already waited more than four months for clarity on Ortiz. Matchroom was prepared to proceed on a reported three-fight, eight-figure agreement centered on an April bout on DAZN, but that arrangement is now stalled. Eddie Hearn has made clear the wait cannot continue indefinitely.
“If we can’t get Vergil Ortiz, then the target we want is Xander Zayas,” Hearn said. “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.”
Ennis will move forward regardless. Ortiz’s legal team argued that Golden Boy’s promotional agreement expired with its prior distribution deal, but the court centered its ruling on language referencing a continuing “distribution relationship,” a distinction that sent the matter to arbitration and preserved Golden Boy’s contractual position.
That ruling keeps Ortiz off the open market while the dispute is resolved and leaves Ennis to decide his next move without him. Arbitration protects Golden Boy’s contractual position while slowing Ennis’s effort to establish himself in a new division.
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