A deal between
Vergil Ortiz Jr. and newly minted WBO junior middleweight titleholder
Xander Zayas is having a difficult time crossing the finish line.
The developments have left promoter Oscar De La Hoya incredibly disappointed.
"It's so frustrating. Boxing right now is just stale, especially here in America. Fighters don’t want to fight each other,” De La Hoya said on social media Sunday. “Perfect example: Xander Zayas. We have a perfect fight for you on a silver platter, pay-per-view. Let’s do it from Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, and you keep saying you wanna go to Puerto Rico? How? Your promoter has no TV [deal] whatsoever. Where are you gonna fight? OnlyFans? Dude, we have DAZN. We have the PPV. We have the date, you and Vergil – Mexico-Puerto Rico, it’s huge.
“What are you waiting for? Let’s do this. I mean, this era right here – I cannot wait for this era to finish. Only the fighters that don’t wanna fight and who are literally [expletive]. They wanna do it for extra millions and this and that. No, let’s be real here. PPV, DAZN, Vergil Ortiz, Xander Zayas. Let’s do it in Las Vegas. What are you waiting for?”
On Friday, Zayas spilled negotiations on social media just as The Ring’s Mike Coppinger reported that
Ortiz was finalizing a deal to face Erickson Lubin on October 18.
Zayas posted a screenshot of an email from Golden Boy president Eric Gomez to Carl Moretti, Top Rank’s VP of Boxing Operations, revealing a 50/50% offer was made for the fight to take place in December in California or Nevada.
Zayas said, “This is not a real offer, stop lying to your fans. The answer is yes! Come meet me in Puerto Rico.”
Ortiz responded: “What exactly is so unfavorable about the offer? It’s 50/50. You have time to recover and train for December. And it would be in neutral territory. Don’t run away now, you’ve had three days to agree and we haven’t heard a thing from your side! … If it doesn’t happen, it’s because he doesn’t want it.”
Gomez was surprised that Zayas would share the offer for the world to see.
“Been doing this a long time, I’ve never had a private email offer posted,” said Gomez. “Sign of the times, I guess, or desperate for an excuse. I know this: if a fighter and promoter really want a fight, they make it happen. If they don’t, they make excuses!”
Zayas (22-0, 13 KOs) won the vacant WBO 154-pound title in July by
beating Jorge Garcia Perez via unanimous decision.
Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs) last fought in February and scored a unanimous decision win against former titleholder Israil Madrimov.
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.