The long-awaited fight between Vergil Ortiz, Jr. and Eimantas Stanionis is finally set to take place on July 8th at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The 12-round bout will be streamed live on DAZN, as confirmed by Golden Boy Promotions on Monday.
This is a matchup between two impressive boxer-punchers who have both been rated in the top 10 by The Ring at 147 pounds. Ortiz is currently ranked number five while Stanionis stands at number six.
Ortiz, who has an unbeaten record of 19-0, with 19 knockouts, is from the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas. He last fought on August 8th, defeating Michael McKinson before the fight was stopped in round nine.
The 25-year-old fighter backed out of the clash against Stanionis in March due to a flare-up of rhabdomyolysis caused by long COVID. In a recent interview with ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, Ortiz revealed he contracted COVID three times, which likely led to rhabdomyolysis. Ortiz was initially expected to fight McKinson on March 19th last year, but he withdrew from the fight after being hospitalized.
Recently, Ortiz traveled to Fresno, California, where he was diagnosed with long COVID and treated by Dr. Juan Bautista.
Stanionis, a 28-year-old boxer originally from Lithuania who now resides in Los Angeles, won a secondary world title belt after defeating Radzhab Butaev by split-decision on April 16th last year. After he was unable to finalize a voluntary defense, he was mandated by the WBA to defend against Ortiz. This match was originally scheduled for March 18th but was postponed because of Stanionis’ hospitalization and appendectomy surgery.
Golden Boy won the purse bid for the Ortiz-Stanionis fight in December, submitting a bid of $2,300,000, which exceeded TGB Promotions’ offer of $2,100,010.