Now that Jaron Ennis has torn through Uisma Lima, Eddie Hearn must wait for Vergil Ortiz and Golden Boy Promotions to handle their business.

Ennis’ promoter is cautiously optimistic that Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez will deliver what they promised during a meeting over the summer in New York. Gomez, Golden Boy’s president, again assured Hearn last week that if the favored Ortiz beats Erickson Lubin on November 8, he'll do his best to make sure the fight happens in early 2026.

DraftKings lists Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) as a 6-1 favorite over Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs), yet the latter is generally regarded as a much greater threat than Lima was to Ennis, who was a 30-1 favorite. Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) dropped Angola’s Lima (14-2, 10 KOs) twice in the first round and beat him by technical knockout just 1:58 into the WBA interim super welterweight title bout Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

“I’ve said it 10 times, a hundred times,” Hearn said during Ennis’ post-fight press conference in his hometown. “We sat in a room with Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez, DAZN, their top executives, and we negotiated a deal to fight Vergil Ortiz. We all agreed, let’s do it.

"We said, ‘They’re both gonna fight [other opponents]. Then January, February, March, whatever it’s gonna be. … They said, 'Let’s do it in Dallas.' I said, 'Let’s do it in Philly.' And we all agreed, 'Let’s do it in Las Vegas.' We went away on those terms that we agreed [upon]. We presented them to Jaron 'Boots' Ennis — he signed the contract. We’ve never heard back from them.

“This week Eric Gomez called me and he said, 'Let’s get Lubin out of the way, and we will do our bit to try and make the fight.’ So, we give them the benefit of the doubt. I know Oscar wants to make great fights. But we are desperate for that fight because we’re desperate to give American boxing super fights [between] two pound-for-pound guys, in their prime. Not two guys that are in their late-30s, not two guys that are coming to the end of their career. Two guys in their absolute prime. So, if everybody’s true to their word, you will see Boots against Ortiz in early 2026.”

The left-handed Lubin, of Orlando, Florida, will oppose Ortiz, of Grand Prairie, Texas, in a 12-round main event DAZN will stream from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. They’ll fight for Ortiz’s WBC interim super welterweight title.

Ortiz, 27, is ranked No. 1 in The Ring’s junior middleweight top 10. Ennis, 28, figures to enter toward the top of that list now that he has made an impressive debut in the 154-pound division.

Lubin, 30, is The Ring’s fifth-rated contender for a junior middleweight title that is vacant.