Looks like the welterweight clash between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis could take place on April 29, Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez confirmed to The Ring on Saturday night.
“That’s the target date,” Gomez told The Ring. “That’s the rescheduled date. [There are] a couple of final pieces to finalize. But we’re hoping to confirm everything this [coming] week.”
Ortiz-Stanionis was originally scheduled to take place on March 18, with the Dallas-Fort Worth area a likely location. Earlier this month, the fight was postponed after Stanionis underwent emergency appendectomy surgery.
The 12-round bout will be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, which won the purse bid and promotes Ortiz, and will be another homecoming of sorts for the 24-year-old, who resides in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie. Ortiz did fight once in his hometown, knocking out Antonio Orozco at the Verizon Theatre in August 2019.
Possible locations where the Ortiz-Stanionis fight could take place are the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, the Ford Center at The Star in nearby Frisco or the College Park Center in nearby Arlington.
Ortiz is ranked No. 5 at welterweight by The Ring, while Stanionis is ranked No. 6.
Ortiz (19-0, 19 KOs) last fought on August 6, stopping Michael McKinson in the ninth round. The fight was originally scheduled for March 13, but Ortiz had to withdraw from the fight after being diagnosed with Rhabdomyolysis, which forced him to be hospitalized days before the fight.
The win over McKinson was sanctioned as a WBA title eliminator, which was successfully lobbied by Golden Boy and manager Rick Mirigian. With Golden Boy Promotions winning the purse bid, the fight will likely stream live on DAZN, which exclusively has a deal to stream Golden Boy cards.
Stanionis (14-0, 9 knockouts), who resides in Kaunas, Lithuania, was last seen defeating Radzhab Butaev by split decision on April 16. Stanionis fought on the same card as Errol Spence Jr., who added the WBA world title belt by stopping Yordenis Ugas in a unification fight. Stanionis was the mandatory challenger to face Ugas but had his petition later denied after pushing for a fight with Spence.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]
