Edwin Diaz Linked to Puerto Rico Cockfighting Graphics
edwin diaz was pictured in Dodgers uniform graphics tied to cockfighting tournaments in Puerto Rico, pulling the three-time All-Star closer into a story that had already touched two top jockeys. The posts and a March article now place his past comments about the practice back in front of a wider audience.
March comments on cockfighting
In March, El Nuevo Día quoted Díaz saying cockfighting was something he had followed since childhood. He also said, "It’s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here."
He added, "It’s something I’ve done since childhood, something my dad instilled in me." The article said he was attending a tournament in which his family entered four roosters, a detail that ties him directly to the event rather than to the online graphics alone.
Ortiz brothers in tournament posts
The same dispute has reached José Ortiz and Irad Ortiz, who were advertised as participants in a 2025 cockfighting tournament. A Facebook post by Club Gallistico de Puerto Rico on Dec. 17, 2025, pictured the brothers and said they accepted the challenge of entering the Caribbean Grand Champion tournament with one goal: to become undisputed champions.
Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming opened an investigation after receiving reports that the Ortiz brothers were taking part in a cockfighting event. Its stewards met with both riders during that review and later chose not to take administrative action against them.
The legal backdrop is now part of the story. Cockfighting was made illegal in all 50 states before a federal ban took effect in Puerto Rico in 2019, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2021 to hear a challenge to that federal law. Puerto Rico also passed its own law allowing cockfights so long as animals or other cockfighting-related goods and services are not imported or exported.
Dodgers and the right elbow
Díaz’s public comments are resurfacing while his baseball status is already unsettled. The Dodgers signed him to a three-year, $69-million contract in December 2025, then announced last month that he had surgery to remove loose bodies in his right elbow and would be out until the second half of the season.
That leaves the issue sitting at the intersection of reputation and availability. Díaz, a Puerto Rico native, is now linked in public posts and a published March article to an activity that sits under federal restriction in Puerto Rico, while the Dodgers wait for his elbow to heal and for the broader fallout around the graphics to run its course.
