{"id":183471,"date":"2025-10-07T15:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183471\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T15:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:13:12","slug":"if-vergil-ortiz-doesnt-want-it-ennis-will-fight-fundora-or-murtazaliev-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183471\/","title":{"rendered":"If Vergil Ortiz Doesn\u2019t Want It, Ennis Will Fight Fundora Or Murtazaliev Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn is baffled by Vergil Ortiz<\/a>\u2019s response to his comments about facing Jaron Ennis early next year.
Hearn, whose company promotes Ennis, left a meeting with Ortiz\u2019s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya<\/a>, and DAZN executives in New York this summer certain that they had hammered out the framework for a deal to have Ennis and Ortiz finally fight. If Ennis and Ortiz win their respective upcoming bouts versus Uisma Lima<\/a> and Erickson Lubin,<\/a> the plan supposedly was for them to definitely face each other next.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Hearn was surprised when Ortiz told The Ring late in the summer that he wouldn\u2019t necessarily adhere to the timetable for facing Ennis that Hearn discussed.<\/p>\n

Hearn is still hopeful that victories over Lima and Lubin lead to what Matchroom Boxing\u2019s chairman considers \u201cthe best fight in boxing.\u201d That hasn\u2019t stopped Team Ennis from analyzing alternatives if Ortiz goes in a different direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, it\u2019s a bit strange,\u201d Hearn told The Ring. \u201cI mean, we sat in the DAZN [headquarters] with DAZN, top brasses at DAZN, U.S. guys. And basically, we all agreed \u2013 myself, Oscar, [Golden Boy President] Eric Gomez, DAZN, that this was the deal [for] the fight. It would take place in Las Vegas, in the first quarter of 2026. Let\u2019s get it made. And that was it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I just presumed, \u2018Go and do your work with your fighter.\u2019 So, we went off, Jaron Ennis signed his new contract, and part of that contract, if the Ortiz fight was available, is the exact terms that we discussed in that room. And he signed off on them. So, I just expected \u2013 I think DAZN expected as well \u2013 for Golden Boy to come back and go, \u2018We\u2019ve also done our deal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn realizes, of course, that Ortiz and Ennis need to fully focus on beating Lubin and Lima in main events DAZN will stream.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, you know, they\u2019ve got their fight coming up,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cBut I hope \u2013 and I know that Oscar wants to make the best fights in boxing \u2013 that is the best fight in boxing, like certainly in American boxing. Two of the best young fighters in the world. It is such a great, great fight. And I think they think they can win. I know we win, so we\u2019re in. So, as long as they agree to all the terms that we agreed on in that room, the fight happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, if Vergil wants to be on his time and all that kind of stuff, then there\u2019s nothing you can do about it. We\u2019ll go and fight [Bakhram] Murtazaliev<\/a> or we\u2019ll fight [Sebastian] Fundora<\/a> or whatever we\u2019ve got to do. But after this Lima fight,<\/a> anyone goes. Anyone can get it \u2013 anybody! You know, whether that\u2019s Murtazaliev, whether that\u2019s Fundora, whether that\u2019s Ortiz, whether that\u2019s Crawford, it don\u2019t matter. Boots will fight anyone. And honestly, I can\u2019t see anybody beating him, I really can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ennis, a former Ring\/IBF\/WBA welterweight champ, isn\u2019t in The Ring\u2019s junior middleweight top 10 because he\u2019ll make his division debut against Lima on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) is rated No. 1 by The Ring, Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs) is ranked second and Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) is third. Fundora owns the WBC belt, Murtazaliev is the IBF champ, and Ortiz holds the WBC interim title.<\/p>\n

The Ring\u2019s 154-pound title is vacant.<\/p>\n

DraftKings lists Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) as a 25-1 favorite to beat Lima (14-1, 10 KOs) in their WBA elimination match at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Ennis\u2019 hometown.<\/p>\n

On paper, Ortiz, of Grand Prairie, Texas, is in for a more difficult fight with Lubin<\/a> (27-2, 19 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, on November 8 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Ortiz is a 6-1 favorite, according to DraftKings, against an opponent who has lost only to Fundora and former unified junior middleweight champ Jermell Charlo<\/a> (35-2-1, 19 KOs).
Fundora, of Coachella, California, is scheduled to defend his WBC belt against former WBA\/WBC welterweight champ Keith Thurman<\/a> (31-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC), of Clearwater, Florida, on October 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn is baffled by Vergil Ortiz\u2019s response to his comments about facing Jaron Ennis early next year.Hearn,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-183471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}