Vergil Ortiz sues Oscar De La Hoya to break contract – Golden Boy issues response

Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vergil Ortiz has decided he wants to divorce from promoter Oscar De La Hoya the same way that future hall of famer Canelo Alvarez did five years ago.

Vergil Ortiz looks to break Golden Boy contract

In fact, the unbeaten Texan has hired the same law firm and lawyer to represent him against De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions, as they and Alvarez eventually prevailed after filing a $280 million claim in California Federal Court in the fall of 2020. That suit was eventually resolved that De La Hoya was deemed responsible to pay Alvarez per his contract regardless of any other promotional dealings that he had with broadcasters and other fights promoters, etc.

And, at that point De La Hoya relented and allowed Alvarez out of the remaining fights on their Golden Boy deal.

In this case, Vergil Ortiz is angered that De La Hoya has disrupted a planned late March bout with fellow unbeaten American Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who is the former unified welterweight champ. Their fight was to have headlined a jointly promoted Golden Boy and Matchroom Boxing show probably in Las Vegas.

Vergil Ortiz lawsuit details

The details of the lawsuit read like a soap opera, but also a repeat of the Canelo situation. Canelo claimed that De La Hoya was doing things behind his back to sabotage possible fights, financially and that ultimately De La Hoya was personally responsible through his promotion to pay him what he was owed.

Vergil Ortiz’s claim is that De La Hoya stopped an agreement for the Ennis fight that was in place, because he wants to change the financial terms with DAZN, the broadcaster and Matchroom.

Smith wrote on Ortiz’s behalf in the lawsuit that was filed Thursday in Nevada and obtained by Boxingscene.com,

“Although Mr. De La Hoya had [a] legendary boxing career, he has a history of substance abuse and rocky relationships with other boxing promoters. In recent years, he has unprofessionally attacked his peers and other boxing luminaries on social media platforms, including weekly Instagram video rants in which he often concludes by telling various boxers and promoters to f*ck themselves.

“To protect Ortiz from the ramifications of Mr. De La Hoya’s behavior, and other boxing industry forces and factions, the PRA contained a provision (Sec. 3(k)) requiring GBP to work in good faith with other promoters as necessary to negotiate with Ortiz’s preferred opponents, and also allowing Ortiz’s representatives to directly negotiate with other promoters. The same clause prevented GBP from engaging in negotiations behind Ortiz’s back by requiring GBP to fully disclose the terms of any written offer and requiring Ortiz to be a signatory to any agreement related to him fighting.”

Smith continued later in the filing,

“In a December 2025 meeting between GBP and Ortiz’ representatives, GBP presented an offer for the bout with Mr. Ennis, and insisted – despite a PRA requirement that Ortiz be offered at least three potential opponents for any bout – that if Ortiz did not agree to the fight that he would be “benched” and not presented with any other opportunity. GBP also threatened that it would publicly blame Ortiz and his team for the fight with Mr. Ennis not happening if Ortiz did not agree to the sole offer presented,” Smith wrote.

“Although GBP did not disclose it to Ortiz during the meeting, Ortiz later came to learn, through public comments of Mr. Hearn, that there had already been a meeting between GBP, Matchroom Boxing, and DAZN that resulted in a written agreement related to terms for the Ortiz/Ennis fight. GBP never presented this document to Ortiz, again breaching its commitments in the PRA.”

De La Hoya had taken to social media on Monday to say that he was “moving on” and for Ortiz to possibly have a fight with either unified 154 lb. champ, Sebastian Fundora or former welterweight champ Errol Spence or that Eddie Hearn and Matchroom could come back and negotiate more with him. Ortiz ‘s manager Rick Mirigian has been on the record since last week that they have a deal in place to fight Ennis and that Ortiz wants that fight to happen, regardless of De La Hoya trying to reopen the negotiations.

Golden Boy fires back at Team Ortiz

The press release from Golden Boy reads: “We are aware of the lawsuit. Unfortunately, Vergil is getting bad advice from his lawyer and manager who have repeatedly violated the contract. We will aggressively defend this lawsuit and enforce our rights. We are confident a judge will agree that our contract is valid and Vergil and his team are in breach.”

It’s not clear on Friday afternoon, if a judge is going to potentially give Ortiz injunctive relief. And, if that happens it could free Mirigian and Vergil Ortiz to go ahead and sign the deal and that De La Hoya and Golden Boy might not be involved in the proposed Ennis fight.