Luis Ortiz buys out contract, separates from Golden Boy

After a strong 2015 that saw him make the climb into contendership, Luis Ortiz’s career appears to have stalled out with just one fight in 2016 and repeated delays/cancellations of his bout with Alexander Ustinov. Whether this is his team’s own doing or not, they were not happy with Golden Boy, and the promotion today announced that they had split with "The Real King Kong."

If there’s any bad blood, Golden Boy isn’t showing it.

"Today, Golden Boy Promotions and Luis Ortiz amicably parted ways," said Stefan Friedman, spokesperson for Golden Boy Promotions.

"We are proud of the work that Golden Boy and Luis accomplished together culminating in his Heavyweight Interim Championship victory and subsequent title defenses. We wish Luis and his team all the best in the future."

Ortiz (25-0, 22 KO) was planning to face Ustinov on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan, but Golden Boy failed to come to terms with the Russian’s promoter. The two were then set to fight on the undercard of Canelo’s upcoming fight with Liam Smith, only for Ortiz to clash with GB over money.

The Cuban is now thirty-seven and has historically struggled with finding opponents. Hopefully, a new promoter can help him best make use of what time he has.