Eimantas Stanionis will return to the ring five and a half months after suffering his first professional defeat.
Stanionis dropped his WBA welterweight belt in an April 12 unification bout with IBF titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, stopped after six rounds. The loss dropped the 30-year-old Stanionis to 15-1 (9 KOs).
Stanionis’ rebuilding will begin on September 27 at Zalgirio Arena in his hometown of Kaunas, Lithuania, according to a post on the fighter’s social media.
His opponent has not yet been announced.
Stanionis became the WBA’s secondary “regular” titleholder by virtue of his April 2022 split decision win over Radzhab Butaev. He made his first defense about two years later, winning a unanimous decision over Gabriel Maestre on the May 2024 undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Jaime Munguia. Stanionis was then elevated to the primary titleholder after Terence Crawford vacated the WBA belt in August 2024.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.