One of boxing’s longtime sicknesses has been the inability of the connected broadcaster to stomach a forceful push for the fights that are begging to be made.
So it’s worth watching how the ongoing negotiations to make the appetizing junior-middleweight bout between unbeatens Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis play out.
Last month, Ortiz manager Rick Mirigian told BoxingScene that streamer DAZN is effectively insistent that Ortiz promoter Oscar De La Hoya and Ennis promoter Eddie Hearn strike a deal to get Ortiz-Ennis done, with the likely date pegged for the early spring in Las Vegas.
Make no mistake about this: If the bout gets made in the coming weeks, this could represent a needed sea change in a sport where broadcasters have far too often been too lenient with their promoter partners, allowing watered-down, stay busy type affairs to be substituted by the actual fights that are ripe to be made.
OK, there may be no full title on the line between WBC interim 154lbs beltholder Ortiz, 24-0 (22 KOs), of Texas and Philadelphia’s former unified welterweight champion Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), but we all know from what we saw in November, that the pair are on an undeniable collision course.
First, Ennis, 28, posted a first-round knockout of outmatched Uisma Lima in Philadelphia.
Then, with Ennis seated ringside in Texas, 27-year-old Ortiz knocked out former 154lbs title challenger Erickson Lubin in the second round.
Ennis entered the ring afterward after pronouncing it’s time for the showdown, and Ortiz expressed mutual interest in the bout.
In the minutes after, backstage at the post-fight news conference, there was sentiment and posturing over a possible alternative bout pitting Ortiz versus former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jnr and regarding Ortiz’s value in the purse split.
Valid points? Of course. A showdown with Texas’ Spence would draw well enough in the state, but Spence hasn’t fought since getting dismantled by Terence Crawford in their summer 2023 bout in Las Vegas, and that bout is nowhere near as big as Ortiz-Ennis.
In former – and recent times – perhaps Spence emerges as the opponent for Ortiz.
But now, considering how this type of “buildup” matchmaking contributed to the downfall of boxing coverage by HBO, Showtime and ESPN, this can no longer be the permitted strategy by major broadcasters who are competing for viewership of mainstream sports fans and who’ve watched major bouts get made by snap of a finger (and the tapping of oil riches) from those in Saudi Arabia.
Hearn, who helped launched DAZN with his Matchroom promotion, has indicated Ennis is committed to the Ortiz fight.
Ortiz has commented recently that he expects the bout to become reality.
And in a year that’s starting with glamour bouts including a 140lbs title defense by Teofimo Lopez versus unbeaten three-division champion Shakur Stevenson and talks for a Cinco de Mayo showdown between light-heavyweight titlist David Benavidez and cruiserweight beltholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, this would qualify as the most important boxing development of the year.
Give the fans the fights they want most, and watch what happens.
The sport has lost enough by not doing so.
What’s left to lose by adjusting to those losses?
