Jaron “Boots” Ennis’ sixth-round stoppage win over Xander Zayas to capture the unified WBA and WBO super welterweight titles was so impressive that it won Uncrowned’s award for the best performance of boxing’s first six months of 2026. But one man who was not left impressed was leading 154-pound contender, Vergil Ortiz Jr.
During Ennis’ much-anticipated fight with Zayas in late June, in which the now-champion was seemingly rocked in Round 3, Ortiz wrote a pair of tweets targeting Ennis.
Ennis responded to Ortiz’s comments on Monday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
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“Same guy that’s been on the floor multiple times,” Ennis responded. “He gets hurt [in his fights]. This guy just be talking, and I figured that out. What’s going to happen when I touch him [in our fight]? Make that make sense.
“I went all the way down there [to Fort Worth, Texas, to watch Ortiz vs. Erickson Lubin last November] — me and Eddie [Hearn, promoter] and my brothers went all the way down there by ourselves. No, we ain’t get no invite, no nothing. We ain’t paid for no tickets. We came in there by ourselves to let them know that we want this fight.
“We came to them face-to-face. They didn’t want to let us get in the ring. They didn’t want us to sit where we were sitting. They were giving us a hard time. Right there, when I got down there, and I figured out that goes to show that these guys don’t want the fight for real, for real.”
In an impressive showing this past November, Ortiz knocked out Erickson Lubin in Round 2 to defend his WBC interim super welterweight title. Ortiz was joined in the ring afterward by Ennis, with the pair trading verbal shots in an intense face-off that led many to believe we’d be treated to one of the best fights in the sport in the first half of 2026.
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“When he did win, and we got in the ring, we faced off, or whatever, and he acted like they wanted it,” Ennis said. “Next thing you know, we get out of the ring, we hear him doing an interview talking about Errol Spence is his dream fight. Like, what? It don’t make sense. If I went ahead and did something like that, everybody would be going crazy. If I would’ve fought and then said Danny Garcia is my dream fight, everybody would’ve been going crazy. It’s crazy.
“We went there by ourselves and let them know that we wanted this fight, and I thought this fight was locked in, set in stone. I was sitting back, waiting. We had a couple of dates and it kept falling through, and they came up with whatever they got going in. It is what it is.
“Like I said, this is my division. I’m taking over the division. I do what I want.”
Ennis and Ortiz were targeting March 28 and then an April 18 date at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Negotiations, however, screeched to a halt after a Nevada judge granted Ortiz’s promoter, Golden Boy, interim injunctive relief against its fighter in March, meaning that Ortiz — who proclaimed to be a free agent — was not able to sign for a fight with Ennis.
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“Boots” was forced to look elsewhere for his next opponent, which he found in Puerto Rico’s Zayas last month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Arbitration was ultimately ordered between Ortiz and Golden Boy, but it doesn’t appear that it will be necessary. Reports suggest the parties are close to finalizing a deal that would see Ortiz return to his promoter for at least the three fights remaining on his contract. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya confirmed to DAZN that the relationship was being reconciled and that Ortiz would be back in the ring in 2026.
With Ortiz potentially out of the ring for a year by the time his next fight comes around, many assumed he’d take a tune-up before fighting Ennis, but his trainer, Robert Garcia, insisted to Boxing Scene last week that Ortiz could go straight into an Ennis bout.
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However, now that Ennis holds two world title belts, he’s not short of options.
“We’re going to get them all [Ortiz, Sebastian Fundora and Josh Kelly], one by one,” Ennis proclaimed. “Whatever is next — we’re going to talk to my team and figure out what’s best and what’s next. I’m here to take over this division, though. This is my division. This boxing game’s mine. And I will be undisputed [champion] in this division.”
Jaron Ennis (L) and Vergil Ortiz Jr. (R) faced off in November 2025.
(Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy via Getty Images)
“[The biggest fight in the division] is between [me versus Sebastian] Fundora and [me versus] Ortiz,” Ennis continued. “I feel like Fundora is a big fight because he’s got a belt, and what is he — 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6, or something like that. That’s something that everybody going to want to go see. They want to see how I match up against that.”
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A unification bout with WBC champion Fundora seems unlikely to materialize next because of a mandatory obligation imposed on Fundora. But Ennis’ promoter, Matchroom, also represents IBF champion Josh Kelly, presenting a potential path to another unification fight for “Boots.”
Ennis confirmed to Uncrowned that he wants to return to the ring in November or December. He also said he’d like to fight in New York again in the foreseeable future or test his drawing power in Chicago or Atlanta, the latter of which has hosted a pair of successful Gervonta “Tank” Davis events and is playing home to Claressa Shields next month.
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