Eddie Hearn is baffled by Vergil Ortiz’s response to his comments about facing Jaron Ennis early next year.

Hearn, whose company promotes Ennis, left a meeting with Ortiz’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, and DAZN executives in New York this summer certain that they had hammered out the framework for a deal to have Ennis and Ortiz finally fight. If Ennis and Ortiz win their respective upcoming bouts versus Uisma Lima and Erickson Lubin, the plan supposedly was for them to definitely face each other next.

That’s why Hearn was surprised when Ortiz told The Ring late in the summer that he wouldn’t necessarily adhere to the timetable for facing Ennis that Hearn discussed.

Hearn is still hopeful that victories over Lima and Lubin lead to what Matchroom Boxing’s chairman considers “the best fight in boxing.” That hasn’t stopped Team Ennis from analyzing alternatives if Ortiz goes in a different direction.

“I’ll be honest with you, it’s a bit strange,” Hearn told The Ring. “I mean, we sat in the DAZN [headquarters] with DAZN, top brasses at DAZN, U.S. guys. And basically, we all agreed – myself, Oscar, [Golden Boy President] Eric Gomez, DAZN, that this was the deal [for] the fight. It would take place in Las Vegas, in the first quarter of 2026. Let’s get it made. And that was it.

“So, I just presumed, ‘Go and do your work with your fighter.’ So, we went off, Jaron Ennis signed his new contract, and part of that contract, if the Ortiz fight was available, is the exact terms that we discussed in that room. And he signed off on them. So, I just expected – I think DAZN expected as well – for Golden Boy to come back and go, ‘We’ve also done our deal.’”

Hearn realizes, of course, that Ortiz and Ennis need to fully focus on beating Lubin and Lima in main events DAZN will stream.

“Listen, you know, they’ve got their fight coming up,” Hearn said. “But I hope – and I know that Oscar wants to make the best fights in boxing – that is the best fight in boxing, like certainly in American boxing. Two of the best young fighters in the world. It is such a great, great fight. And I think they think they can win. I know we win, so we’re in. So, as long as they agree to all the terms that we agreed on in that room, the fight happens.

“Now, if Vergil wants to be on his time and all that kind of stuff, then there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ll go and fight [Bakhram] Murtazaliev or we’ll fight [Sebastian] Fundora or whatever we’ve got to do. But after this Lima fight, anyone goes. Anyone can get it – anybody! You know, whether that’s Murtazaliev, whether that’s Fundora, whether that’s Ortiz, whether that’s Crawford, it don’t matter. Boots will fight anyone. And honestly, I can’t see anybody beating him, I really can’t.”

Ennis, a former Ring/IBF/WBA welterweight champ, isn’t in The Ring’s junior middleweight top 10 because he’ll make his division debut against Lima on Saturday night.

Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) is rated No. 1 by The Ring, Fundora (23-1-1, 15 KOs) is ranked second and Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) is third. Fundora owns the WBC belt, Murtazaliev is the IBF champ, and Ortiz holds the WBC interim title.

The Ring’s 154-pound title is vacant.

DraftKings lists Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) as a 25-1 favorite to beat Lima (14-1, 10 KOs) in their WBA elimination match at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Ennis’ hometown.

On paper, Ortiz, of Grand Prairie, Texas, is in for a more difficult fight with Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, on November 8 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Ortiz is a 6-1 favorite, according to DraftKings, against an opponent who has lost only to Fundora and former unified junior middleweight champ Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs).

Fundora, of Coachella, California, is scheduled to defend his WBC belt against former WBA/WBC welterweight champ Keith Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC), of Clearwater, Florida, on October 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.