Promoter Oscar De La Hoya continued to frame the situation as routine negotiation. Talk to Battle hypehe emphasized that talks have been active for months and continue.
“We have been in negotiations with DAZN for some time,” De La Hoya said. “We’ve had a great relationship with DAZN, and we’ve had some great events with them. There’s no reason why that relationship should end.”
De La Hoya added that discussions began long before the contract expired. “We started in October, November, even in September last year,” he said. “It’s such a complex contract that it takes time.”
This explanation is now being tested in court. In mid-January, Vergil Ortiz Jr. filed a lawsuit to end his promotional deal with Golden Boy. The filing points to a specific provision, Section 3k, that Ortiz’s legal team said allowed him to exit the contract if Golden Boy’s exclusive DAZN deal expired. From that point of 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 underscore that negotiations alone do not replace an active broadcast contract.
The lawsuit also drags Golden Boy’s most valuable potential battle into the dispute. Ortiz claims the company did not act in good faith in finalizing a match with Jaron Ennis and instead used his availability as leverage in talks with DAZN. That fight has long been seen as the anchor for any renewed deal. Industry reporting has suggested that DAZN wants Ennis opposite Ortiz as the centerpiece. With Ortiz now challenging his contract, that leverage has worn thin.
The broader market only intensifies 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 deal with Paramount+ through 2026, locking in a platform while others are scrambling.
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 ceases to be a strategy and becomes a risk.
