Golden Boy Promotions' president Eric Gomez submitted a sworn declaration as part of his company's lawsuit against WBC interim junior middleweight champion Vergil Ortiz. The boxer is trying to free himself from a Golden Boy contract and sign for a huge fight against former welterweight champion Jaron Ennis, with a crucial hearing scheduled for Friday. Here is what Gomez told the court in advance of the hearing: "As Golden Boy’s President since at least 2018, I have been involved in all negotiations of broadcast rights for Golden Boy’s events and specifically in negotiations with DAZN. Golden Boy and DAZN have had a longstanding broadcast distribution relationship. Since October of 2018, Golden Boy and DAZN have entered into a series of exclusive distribution agreements, whereby Golden Boy has licensed to DAZN the exclusive right to broadcast boxing events promoted by Golden Boy. During the course of Golden Boy’s relationship with DAZN, we would typically negotiate the terms of a renewed agreement beginning in September or October of the year in which the then current version of the license agreement was set to expire. In the past, we have typically agreed on principal business terms before the end of year, but the long form agreement would be finalized and signed the following year.
"We followed this same practice in 2025. Specifically, after some negotiation, we agreed on material terms to be included in a license agreement for 2026-2027 and DAZN circulated an initial draft of the long form agreement in early November 2025. The parties then exchanged several rounds of revisions and comments, and Golden Boy delivered a revised version to DAZN on December 15th.
"On January 7, 2026, I resent that revised version of the long form agreement to DAZN and asked them whether the changes were acceptable. The very next day, Golden Boy received a letter from Vergil Ortiz’s lawyer [attempting] to terminate our promotional agreement with him. On January 13th, DAZN’s Senior Vice President, Jared Kass, suggested that he and I have a call to work through the final points on the long form contract. The next day, Ortiz filed this lawsuit.
"Since this lawsuit was filed, DAZN has refused to finalize the terms of the long-form agreement that was almost fully negotiated as of December 15, 2025. Although I have participated in discussions between Golden Boy and DAZN regarding a new two-year license agreement that have continued since this lawsuit was filed, DAZN has made clear that they will not agree to a new long-term license agreement with Golden Boy unless Golden Boy provides a full and complete waiver of claims related to this lawsuit and Ortiz generally. Since the date this lawsuit was filed, Ed McCarthy, DAZN’s Chief Operating Officer, has been involved in all of Golden Boy’s discussions with DAZN. McCarthy is also a manager of Matchroom Boxing USA, LLC, one of the promoters who has offered Ortiz a new contract.
"On February 18th, DAZN and Matchroom announced a new five-year exclusive broadcast contract extension. It is my understanding and belief that but for Ortiz’s purported termination of his promotional agreement with Golden Boy, as well as this lawsuit, Golden Boy’s distribution relationship with DAZN would have continued unimpeded. It is my belief that Ortiz’s actions have directly and solely prevented the draft distribution agreement between Golden Boy and DAZN from being executed. If Ortiz is permitted to sign elsewhere, especially with Matchroom, there is no way to know whether we will be able to reach agreement with DAZN. Contrary to the statements in [Ortiz's manager] Rick Mirigian’s declaration, I never stated that Golden Boy would 'bench' Ortiz if he did not agree to the proposals we made for the Ennis fight. To the contrary, after Mirigian and Ortiz indicated that our offer was not sufficient, I continued negotiating with DAZN and Matchroom (who represents Ennis) to try and obtain improved terms for Ortiz.
"Mirigian’s statements regarding Golden Boy’s relationship with Turki Alalshikh and his boxing promotional companies are completely false. Golden Boy has worked closely with Sela Global Entertainment Co. Ltd. and its affiliates on several events and earlier this year [we] signed contracts by which Sela acquired the rights to this weekend’s event featuring a championship fight between Ryan Garcia and Mario Barrios. Golden Boy is the promoter of record for that event and is working directly with Sela to promote that event.
"On behalf of Golden Boy, I was the individual primarily responsible for negotiations related to the Ortiz-Ennis bout. At no point did I ever direct, consent to, or authorize Mirigian to negotiate on Ortiz’s or Golden Boy’s behalf. In fact, shortly after Ortiz’s last fight in November, Mirigian told me he had discussed the Ennis fight with certain unidentified representatives of Sela and I specifically instructed him to direct any such inquires to me. Any direct contact or communications Mirigian made to third parties relating to the fight, including to Turki Alalshikh, were made without Golden Boy’s knowledge or authorization. Additionally, there was no benefit in Golden Boy agreeing to extend its previous long-term distribution agreement with DAZN beyond December 31, 2025 because there were no remaining funds under that agreement to finance any new bouts. I declare under penalty of perjury under that the foregoing is true and correct.
