With the bout between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis having been postponed multiple times, there is now hope that the new scheduled bout between the two fighters on July 8 will finally commence as planned, according to Golden Boy Promotions who promote Ortiz Jr. Their match is set to take place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
As both fighters suffered peculiar ailments or injuries prior to their scheduled bouts, their match has been postponed twice already. Despite the announcement that would see Lithuanian fighter Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KO’s) defend his WBA ‘Regular’ belt against American contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (19-0, 19 KO’s), there are some doubts as to whether the scheduled date of July 8 will remain uninterrupted given how many times their match has been postponed.
In any case, the two fighters have displayed uncanny resolve throughout their ordeals to ensure that they would fight each other. Eimantas Stanionis is currently regarded as the WBA ‘Regular’ champion at 147 pounds, but his title is only considered as a stepping stone towards becoming the WBA ‘Super’ champion which is currently Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22 KO’s), the unified champion in the division when counting his WBC and IBF titles.
The winner between them will therefore gain the opportunity to face Errol Spence Jr. sometime in the future, though notably the entire notion of mandates have raised uncertainty after the former WBA champion at Welterweight, Yordenis Ugas (27-5, 12 KO’s), bypassed the WBA’s order for him to face Stanionis ― who had been the WBA’s mandatory challenger at the time, in order to unify his title with Errol Spence Jr.’s WBC and IBF titles. Ugas would eventually lose his title and match to Spence in April of 2022. Since conquering Ugas’ WBA title, Spence has notably been inactive from the sport without any indication of an injury, and has somehow not been hit with any sort of mandate by any of the three sanctioning bodies whose titles he possesses.
That makes it unlikely the winner of Stanionis-Ortiz will even sniff at a chance of facing Errol Spence Jr. Despite the rather pointless nature of having a WBA ‘Regular’ belt in the Welterweight division, the match between the two young fighters is sort of a breakthrough match for both due to them being undefeated, young and talented. Undoubtedly, the winner between this matchup will gain a significant boost in popularity and more opportunities both outside and inside the ring.
With his 100% KO ratio, Vergil Ortiz Jr. has plenty of opportunities to defeat Lithuanian champion Eimantas Stanionis, but Stanionis presents a different sort of threat. Though not as powerful as Ortiz, Stanionis can safely be regarded as the more skilled fighter with his ability to box both on the outside and inside. With the Lithuanian not lacking for power himself and having showcased good defensive skills, Ortiz Jr.’s matchup with Stanionis will be a true case of “styles win fights”, and determine who is the best between two fighters who are already tipped to be future top candidates for the pound-for-pound list, if not future Hall of Famers.
