Promoter Oscar De La Hoya has continued to frame the situation as routine negotiation. Speaking to Fighthype, he stressed that talks have been active for months and remain ongoing.
“We’ve been in negotiations with DAZN for quite a while now,” De La Hoya said. “We’ve had a great relationship with DAZN, and we’ve put on some great events with them. There’s no reason why that relationship should end.”
De La Hoya added that discussions began well before the contract expired. “We started back in October, November, even in September of last year,” he said. “It’s such a complex contract that it takes time.”
That explanation is now being tested in court. In mid January, Vergil Ortiz Jr. filed a lawsuit seeking to terminate his promotional agreement with Golden Boy. The filing points to a specific provision, Section 3k, which Ortiz’s legal team says allowed him to exit the contract if Golden Boy’s exclusive DAZN deal expired. From that view, the lapse on December 31 was not a technical delay but a trigger.
Ortiz’s lawyers go further, arguing that ongoing talks do not amount to a binding agreement. In the filing, they describe Golden Boy’s position as an “agreement to agree,” language meant to underline that negotiations alone do not replace an active broadcast contract.
The lawsuit also drags Golden Boy’s most valuable potential fight into the dispute. Ortiz alleges the company failed to act in good faith to finalize a bout with Jaron Ennis and instead used his availability as leverage in talks with DAZN. That fight has long been viewed as the anchor for any renewed deal. Industry reporting has suggested DAZN wants Ennis versus Ortiz as the centerpiece. With Ortiz now challenging his contract, that leverage has thinned.
The wider market only sharpens the pressure. Top Rank has been without a major network since its deal with ESPN expired in 2025, relying instead on limited FAST channel distribution to keep dates alive. At the same time, Zuffa Boxing, led by Dana White, recently secured a multi year agreement with Paramount+ for 2026, locking in a platform while others scramble.
That contrast matters. Golden Boy is still negotiating, still hopeful, and still without cover. De La Hoya’s optimism may yet be rewarded, but once fighters start pointing to exit clauses and judges start reading contracts, patience stops being a strategy and starts being a risk.
