By Francisco Salazar, Michael Rosenthal
CARSON - Welterweight Eimantas Stanionis won an eight-round unanimous decision over Puerto Rico's Samuel Figueroa.
Stanionis, who is now trained by Ronnie Shields, was effective during the first two rounds, connecting with counter right hands to the head of the southpaw Figueroa.
By the third round, Figueroa (11-2, 4 KOs) began slipping and countering Stanionis to the head and body. Figueroa worked from the outside as Stanionis worked from the center of the ring.
Stanonis closed the distance during the final two rounds, but did little to connect to the body or work behind a constant jab. Stanionis mostly threw arm punches during this point of the fight, where they had little impact as they did during the first couple of rounds.
All three judges scored the bout 80-72 in favor of Stanionis, who goes to 8-0, 5 KOs.
In the opening bout of the Premier Boxing Champions card, featherweight Viktor Slavinskyi won a six-round unanimous decision over veteran Luis May (21-13-1, 8 KOs) of Mexico. Scores were 60-54, 60-54, and 59-55 for Slavinskskyi (8-0-1, 4 KOS), who is originally from the Ukraine and now resides in the Los Angeles area.
