Edwin Diaz Cockfighting Graphic Links Dodgers Pitcher to 2025 Event
edwin diaz cockfighting graphics linked Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Edwin Díaz to a Puerto Rico tournament image that showed him in his Dodgers uniform. The same reporting tied two Kentucky Derby-winning jockeys to the same scene, turning a social-media post into a wider question about how high-profile sports figures became part of an illegal animal-fighting promotion.
Edwin Díaz and Puerto Rico
Díaz was pictured in a cockfighting tournament graphic and was quoted about the sport in March by El Nuevo Día. He said, “It’s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” and added, “It’s something I’ve done since childhood, something my dad instilled in me.”
He also said he was attending a tournament in which his family entered four roosters. That detail puts him inside the activity, not just near it, and it is why the Dodgers pitcher became the most visible baseball name in the posts.
Díaz is a three-time All-Star on a three-year, $69-million contract, and he was born in Puerto Rico. The tournament image tied that background to a sport that has long sat at the center of a fight between island tradition and federal law.
Ortiz brothers on Facebook
The same thread reached horse racing. José Ortiz and Irad Ortiz were advertised as participants in a cockfighting tournament in 2025, and a Facebook post by Club Gallistico de Puerto Rico on Dec. 17, 2025, pictured the brothers and listed them as participants in a cockfighting event.
The post said the brothers excel in international horse racing but also have a passion for cockfighting. It also said Irad and José Luis Ortiz accepted the challenge of participating in the “Caribbean Grand Champion” tournament with a single goal to become undisputed champions.
Both jockeys were born in Puerto Rico, like Díaz, and the post made their names part of a public promotion rather than a private appearance. That is the point where the story moved from a social post to a regulatory response.
Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming
Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming launched an investigation after receiving reports that Irad Ortiz and Jose Ortiz were participating in a cockfighting event. Stewards met with both jockeys during the investigation, then elected not to take administrative action against them.
Puerto Rico’s legal fight over cockfighting gives the posts their edge. A federal law banning the practice took effect there in 2019, after cockfighting had already been illegal in all 50 states but not in U.S. territories. Puerto Rico also passed a law allowing cockfights as long as people do not export or import the animals or any related goods or services, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2021 to hear a challenge to the federal ban as applied to Puerto Rico.
For readers, the practical takeaway is simple: the names attached to the graphics are not anonymous faces from a niche event. They are Díaz and the Ortiz brothers, all born in Puerto Rico, all linked in public posts to cockfighting, and one of the racing regulators named in the record already reviewed the allegation and chose not to discipline the jockeys.
