Eimantas Stanoionis has had a very likable career thus far. From entertaining fights to stepping aside and not forcing a mandatory consolidation of his WBA world welterweight title with WBA super world welterweight champion, Errol Spence Jr., which allowed for the failed negations of Errol Spence Jr. versus Terence Crawford in 2022. Stanoinis has always been a rather easy fighter to cheer for as he picked up his world title against formidable undefeated fighter Radzhab Butaev in April 2022, in a high-risk, somewhat low-reward fight as most pundits I feel don't even acknowledge Stonoionis as a world champion.
Since then Stanoinis has waited it isn’t his fault though. Fights never got made, the best in the welterweight division are more inclined to simply wait rather than fight, and now a little over a year to the date, Stanoinis will face Golden Boy Promotions Vergil Ortiz Jr. at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, as he looks to make his first world title defense against one of the biggest emerging stars in the sport of boxing.
The fight date was pushed back a little over a month as the fight is now occurring on April 29th, which will see an amazing stretch of good boxing, as the week prior we will see Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia, followed by this fantastic welterweight bout, and concluded by the fight fan’s dream bout between Naoya Inoue and Stephen Fulton Jr., fighting for Fulton’s WBC and WBO world titles in Japan. The original fight date was set for March 18th, but Stanoinis had to get his appendix removed. Fear not for fans of Stanoinis as he said that he feels fine.
“I just got my appendix [taken out], you never knew when you can get it, everybody makes a big deal about it, but after two weeks I was training perfectly and after three weeks I started sparring and everything is well,” said Eimantas Stanionis to Little Giant Boxing, during an interview at the Wild Card Boxing Gym last week. “This fight for me is do-or-die.”
What makes the fight most exciting though is both fighters who have a solid amateur pedigree, as Stanoinis is a 2016 Olympian, and Ortiz Jr., competed in the USA Boxing system for years, has a style that doesn’t take a professor of the sweet science to understand. They like to have their opponent experience their frustrations in life, and thus, this fighting is interesting as both fighters are not hard to find in the ring, and typically push their opponents backward. Despite being, the champion, Stanoinis, is viewed as the underdog and is even going to Ortiz’s home state to fight, yet Stanoinis takes it in stride as he embraces the moment.
“It is okay, I love to be the underdog,” said Stanionis when Little Giant Boxing asked how he felt about fighting in Vergil Ortiz’s hometown. “Also, my people from Lithuania will fly in, so I will have support also, pretty good - I just can’t wait.”
