As inactivity intensifies, Stanionis longs for a good dance partner – Ennis included

After more than 15 months out of the ring – largely due to factors out of his control – you can excuse WBA (Regular) World welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis for being a little impatient as far as assembling big bouts are concerned. Vergil Ortiz Jr is out indefinitely, though IBF interim titlist Jaron Ennis publicly put his name in the hat after dismantling Roiman Villa on July 8.

Stanionis: Maybe it’s not smart, but I don’t like tune-ups

• “I would fight anyone, just want a good dance partner. Maybe it’s not smart, I was off for a long time… I just want to fight, I don’t like tune-ups,” Stanionis says on the prospect of facing a soft touch on his in-ring return
• 28-year-old Lithuanian welterweight has seen his career stagnate since Radzhab Butaev win on April 16, the same night Errol Spence Jr scored a R10 TKO win over Yordenis Ugas. Spence returns to face WBO champion Terence Crawford, winner seals undisputed status at 147lbs this weekend
• Highly-regarded welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr (#1 WBA, WBO, WBC, #3 IBF) now expected to take a health break before moving up to light-middleweight after sustained issues with weight and hydration over the past two years, resulting in two Stanionis fight cancellations

If April 16th last year was the proudest moment of Eimantas Stanionis’ professional career to date, the subsequent 15 months since have ultimately proven tiresome.

Slated to make the first defence of his WBA (Regular) title against highly-rated contender Vergil Ortiz Jr, the intriguing matchup has thrice been cancelled.

First was emergency appendectomy surgery for the Lithuanian, then Ortiz withdrew with an undisclosed illness. It was later revealed to be rhabdomyolysis, which he suffered a year earlier before a matchup with Portsmouth’s Michael McKinson.

That was rebooked and the 25-year-old prevailed that August, but he most recently fainted during fight week as the Stanionis showdown was sadly nixed a third time on July 6. At the time, Stanionis’ manager Shelly Finkel told Yahoo Sports:

“I feel so badly for Eimantas, but what can you do? We’ll plan to try to get whatever we can but it’s terrible… I don’t know if there’s another option to take and then fight that [bout vs. the Crawford-Spence winner], I am preserving all of his rights.

I’m going to have our laywer, whom I already spoke to, send a letter to the WBA pointing out this is not our fault. They agreed and felt bad for Eimantas – won a title and hasn’t been able to defend it.”

That article was written by Kevin Iole on July 6, and since then, the sanctioning body have officially approved Stanionis to have a voluntary title defence of his choosing.

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What about Jaron Ennis? 

This is where IBF interim welterweight champion Jaron Ennis comes into the picture.

Having dismantled Roiman Villa en route to a R10 KO win that same July 8 weekend, he took the mic and again put his name in the hat for big fights. The criticism that followed his decision win over the unheralded Karen Chukhadzhian was no more.

During a post-fight interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray, he said:

“I didn’t do everything my dad was telling me to do, staying in-front a little too much and taking a few more punches but at the end of the day, I appreciate Villa for taking the fight – being a warrior.

[On why he doesn’t yet have a title shot set in stone] It’s boxing… We gotta wait for Spence-Crawford, y’all know I want the winner so let’s make that happen. The fans want it, I want it, let’s get it popping.

Stanionis? Most definitely, take him in a heartbeat. Keith Thurman, [Yordenis] Ugas, all the other top guys, I want another one before the end of the year.”

Ugas hasn’t featured since losing to Spence in Apr. 22, where he sustained a fractured orbital bone and wasn’t cleared to train without restrictions until last October.

There’s a bilateral rematch clause for whoever loses Saturday’s megafight, meaning while undisputed status might not be on the line a second time around in 2024, a delay is still expected atop the division as far as championships are concerned.

Fellow former world champion Keith Thurman, who returned after a lengthy layoff to beat Mario Barrios two months earlier, hasn’t featured either but the pair are reportedly in talks to fight for an interim WBC welterweight title next month.

The fact that prospective bout hasn’t yet been announced, considering both were supposedly going in different directions with fight dates and opponents previously, means speculation will linger until the matchup is set in stone. We’ll wait and see.

Picture source: Amanda Westcott
Quotes via Showtime TV broadcast unless hyperlinked