Eddie Hearn read what the father and manager of Vergil Ortiz said about boxing Jaron Ennis next if the unbeaten junior middleweights win their fights scheduled four weeks apart in October and November.

Vergil Ortiz Sr. and Rick Mirigian hammered Hearn for implying the two sides have finalized a deal for a fight with Ennis early next year.

Mirigian, the manager, contended on social media that Ortiz’s team hasn’t been presented with a contract to fight Ennis and they won't partake in a “circus” regarding negotiations for one of boxing's most marketable bouts.

Hearn is nonetheless confident Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) and Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs), of Grand Prairie, Texas, are closer than ever.

“We targeted February,” Hearn told The Ring. “We targeted Las Vegas. And that’s what we expect and hope to happen. I know that’s what DAZN are expecting to happen.”

DAZN’s influence is important in the Ortiz-Ennis equation because the streaming service figures to finance one of the most intriguing fights it could make available to its subscribers.

DAZN is fully funding their interim matches as well — Ennis vs. Uisma Lima (14-1, 10 KOs) on October 11 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and Ortiz against Erickson Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs) on November 8 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fans have harshly criticized Ennis for fighting Angola’s Lima, though the former Ring/IBF/WBA welterweight champ repeatedly stated wanting one 154-pound bout before he faces Ortiz, whose past four fights have been contested at or slightly above the junior middleweight limit.

Hearn acknowledged that he doesn’t know whether Ortiz and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions have reached an agreement on their contract to face Ennis. The Matchroom Boxing chairman is certain however, that they had the framework for a deal when they left the meeting.

“There’s a lot of reporting about the Ortiz fight,” Hearn said. “This is the situation with the Ortiz fight —

myself, Oscar, Golden Boy, DAZN, we sat in a room and we hashed out the framework of a deal that we believe could work between us.

"A very straightforward deal for, what I believe, is one of the best fights in boxing. We went away, and Boots signed the terms [for his multiyear Matchroom extension] on the basis of that framework. In his new extension with us, his next fight is supposed to be the Ortiz fight. And he is done, signed and committed for that fight.

“I came out and I said that, and some people reported that the Boots fight [with Ortiz] is signed. It’s not, because I don’t know where Golden Boy and Vergil Ortiz are up to. Now, when you speak to Rick Mirigian, he says, ‘Well, we have no contract.’

“The plan in that room was always Boots is fighting October the 11th, Vergil Ortiz is fighting October the 18th, and then they fight each other. Done. And that’s what we’re expecting and hoping to happen. And, for me, that is one of the best fights in the sport.”