The obvious next fight for junior middleweight contenders Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis is against one another, something that people have been clamoring for since both were seen as the future of the welterweight division.
The desire for Ortiz vs. Ennis only intensified after Ortiz obliterated Erickson Lubin in two rounds on Saturday. Ortiz subsequently went face to face in the ring with Ennis, who traveled to the show at Dickies Center in Fort Worth, Texas, about a month after Boots entered the mix at 154lbs with a one-round destruction of Uisma Lima.
Boxing fans want the fight. DAZN, which works with both of their promoters (Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing), wants the fight. Ortiz and Ennis both say they want the fight.
Ortiz apparently wants another fight even more, however.
“It doesn’t matter who’s next. If I had to pick – I’ma be honest, it would be [Errol] Spence, because that’s my dream fight,” Ortiz told reporters, according to a video posted on FightHype. “I just think that’s my dream fight. I don’t care what anyone says about it. But anyone can get it, respectfully. I just want to fight the best. I’m just a competitive guy.”
Ortiz was born in Dallas and lives in Grand Prairie, a city that sits within the DFW area. Spence lives in Desoto, about 20 minutes south of Dallas. If Ortiz’s dream fight were to come true, it would most likely be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the massive home of the Dallas Cowboys football team.
“We came out of the same gym. I was training with him when I was like 11,” Ortiz said. “I just think that’s a full circle for me that I would love to have. [...] I just think it would be a good fight for Dallas.”
Ortiz’s manager, Rick Mirigian, had similar sentiments in a Sunday Instagram post.
“I think Ortiz vs. Spence at Cowboy [sic] Stadium (biggest all-Texas matchup in history) and [Jermell] Charlo vs. Boots as co-main, and the winners fight each other just might be [fire emoji],” Mirigian wrote. “Makes sense, Charlo and Boots both turned Ortiz down.”
To be clear, Ortiz wasn’t saying that he wouldn’t take the fight with Ennis. Rather, he was saying what his dream next fight would be. However, there’s a difference between fighters and their teams saying they want a bout, and then getting them to actually agree to the terms of a contract.
Their face-off and verbal back-and-forth were great. Their signatures on the dotted line will be even better.
And that’s where DAZN comes in. The streaming service’s funding is essential to making the bout, and it may see anything involving Spence and Charlo as a hard sell for its subscribers and potential pay-per-view purchases. While both Spence and Charlo are big names from Texas, DAZN needs to reach a national and global audience. And neither boxer has done anything in the sport in some time.
Spence was last in the ring in July 2023, when he was stopped by Terence Crawford in a remarkably one-sided bout for the undisputed welterweight championship. There had been talks of Spence moving up to 154lbs to challenge Sebastian Fundora earlier this year, only for that pairing to fall apart.
Charlo, who lives outside of Houston, hasn’t fought since September 2023, when he moved up two weight classes and lost a one-sided decision to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
