Probably the most anticipated fights on the boxing calendar has been hit with a delay.
WBA ‘Common’ welterweight titlist Eimantas Stanionis was hospitalized and compelled to endure appendectomy surgical procedure on Friday, thus suspending his deliberate title protection versus necessary challenger Vergil Ortiz Jr. As beforehand reported by BoxingScene.com, the explosive battle of undefeated welterweights was attributable to happen on March 18 at a location to be decided within the better Dallas space however will likely be rescheduled for an undisclosed April date.
“By no means used to lift the issues about being sick or being unhealthy, however yesterday the ache was too exhausting to deal with and went straight to the hospital for a late night emergency appendectomy surgical procedure,” Stanionis acknowledged by means of his verified social media account on Saturday. “My supervisor (Shelly Finkel) filed the request to postpone the struggle.
“New date in a number of days, it must be April. [Two] weeks of relaxation to my physique and once I will likely be flying to USA to start out the preparation for the struggle.”
Stanionis (14-0, 9KOs; 1NC) was attributable to make the primary protection of the secondary title he acquired in a hard-fought choice win over Radzhab Butaev. The fiercely contested twelve-round battle befell final April 16 at AT&T Stadium, residence to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas.
The struggle with Ortiz (19-0, 19KOs) will mark the second straight journey to the Dallas-Fort Value area for the 2016 Lithuania Olympian, assuming the situation stays intact for the forthcoming rescheduled date.
Ortiz punched his method into competition following a ninth-round knockout of unbeaten Michael McKinson final August 13 at Dickies Area in Fort Value, mere minutes from his hometown of Grand Prairie, Texas. The undefeated knockout artist—who will flip simply 25 in March— lobbied for his necessary title standing to be enforced final September. The WBA supplied a assure that negotiations would start if Stanionis didn’t safe a voluntary protection by November 16.
To his credit score, Stanionis was wanting to bump with Ortiz as soon as it grew to become clear that he wouldn’t get a struggle earlier than 12 months’s finish. Their respective groups have been unable to achieve a deal in time to keep away from a December 12 purse bid listening to, which was received by Golden Boy Promotions ($2,300,000) who outpaced TGB Promotions ($2,100,010) to safe the rights to the eagerly awaited welterweight conflict.
In principle, the winner is due a shot on the WBA ‘Tremendous’ title held by Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22KOs), who additionally holds the IBF and WBC titles and is eyeing an April ring return. Spence’s struggle was not but introduced, although a joint ruling by the WBA and WBC allowed for the latter to have their necessary enforced first which might imply former unified titlist Keith Thurman (30-1, 22KOs) could be subsequent in line for the unbeaten Texan.
Ought to the timelines maintain true, then each welterweight fights will likely be going down at roughly the identical time. It stays to be seen whether or not it results in the winners truly assembly, or an improve to full titlist by default for the Stanionis winner.
For now, all issues are with Stanionis.
“I do know everyone is upset, however [it’s God’s] plan,” acknowledged Stanionis. “I at all times wish to give followers thrilling fights and I would like [a] little bit time to get absolutely again from this little surgical procedure.”
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
