It’s official! Interim WBC super welterweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. will fight Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov on February 22nd in the stacked card in Saudi Arabia. However, the path to this fight was riddled with lies and backtracking. Hours after His Excellency Turki Alalshikh confirmed the Ortiz vs. Madrimov fight, more evidence of Jaron Ennis’ father, Bozy Ennis, lying about wanting a fight against Ortiz Jr. surfaced online. 

Going back a few weeks, Oscar De La Hoya, Ortiz’s promoter, suggested a 5 vs. 5 fight between fighters from his Golden Boy Promotion against fighters from Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. One of the fights Oscar mentioned was between Ortiz and Ennis, which had fans excited for obvious reasons. However, when Bozy was asked about it, he made a terrible mistake. 

He lied about it, at least, as per what happened next and the narrative it created. In an interview with Boxing News, Bozy claimed they offered to fight Ortiz Jr., but it was rejected. “They already asked about that, [and] they said they turned it down,” Bozy claimed. When the reporter tried to confirm whether Golden Boy Promotions rejected it—Ennis doubled down.

“I don’t know if [it was] Golden Boy, I don’t know, they said they turned it down,” Bozy claimed. Immediately after this, Ortiz turned to X to inquire whether they had really received the offer because he never heard of any such thing. Meanwhile, Ortiz’s father turned to X, asking, “Bozy, when did this [happen]???” 

“Can you please post the offer/email/contract of when this was sent??? Post the person’s name and actual email, please… I don’t appreciate this person making decisions for Vergil. IF this is true.” Since this debacle, Ennis’ team did end up sending a contract later, but it had a catch. You see, Ennis and his promoter had claimed they wanted to move to the 154 division. 

However, the fight contract stipulated that the fight would happen in the 147 division, where Ortiz has a history of being weaker due to weight cuts. So, it was obviously rejected, leading to the organizers replacing Ennis with Madrimov for the February 22nd card. 

Now, earlier today, Bozy Ennis’ clip, claiming Ortiz’s team had rejected the fight way back before the offer was made surfaced again. This caught the eye of acclaimed boxing journalist Dan Rafael on X, who responded by writing, “More evidence of the lies.” Meanwhile, Vergil Ortiz Jr. has also commented on the entire debacle. 

Vergil Ortiz Jr. remains true to his words after Jaron Ennis debacle

After the Jaron Ennis fight fell apart because of the weight stipulation, which many claim was put in place only for Ennis to dodge the fight, Ortiz hopped on X a few days ago to share his stance on the matter. “I’ve always said I’ll fight anybody and I remained true to my word,” he wrote. “Every single person that I have been offered to fight I said yes.”

He further added that it takes “2 to tango in boxing,” so if he is not fighting—it’s not his fault. “Time for some of you guys to stop saying I’m ducking and don’t wanna fight because that’s not the case this time and never was,” he concluded. It’s also worth mentioning that Sebastian Fundora and Xander Zayas were also among the few who were offered to replace Ennis, but the organizers settled on Madrimov. 

That said, it appears Bozy Ennis has been caught lying about wanting a fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr. for his son, just for them to find a way to slither out of the challenge. However, whether this leads to a future blockbuster is yet to be seen. It would be even more interesting to see who Ennis ends up fighting next, or more accurately, at what weight. What do you think of the situation?