Vergil Ortiz of Grand Prairie defeated Michael McKinson back in August in Fort Worth at the Dickies Arena. He stopped Michael McKinson over nine-one-sided rounds to move his record to 19-0 (19). In doing so, he became the mandatory challenger for the WBA "Regular" Champion Eimantas Stanionis. The two were ordered to fight by the WBA and it was Ortiz's promotional outfit, Golden Boy Promotions, that won the WBA title fight with a bid of $2.3 million outdueling, TGB Promotions, which is closely tied to PBC, who bid $2.1 million. According to Ortiz's manager Rick Mirigian, the fight will take place in either L.A. or Texas and will likely be held in late March. Ortiz is guaranteed to make a minimum of $575,000, and Stanionins, the champ, will get 75% of the purse, or $1,725,000. The bout will stream on DAZN.
Stanionis hails from Lithuania and sports a record of 14-0 (9). He captured the title back in April by outpointing Radzhab Butaev in a highly competitive fight that was the co-main event of the Errol Spence vs Yordenis Ugas unification bout in Las Vegas. Stanionis was moved along quickly after a very successful amateur career that included winning a gold medal at the 2015 European Championships in the welterweight bracket and had wins over Justin DeLoach, and Thomas Dulorme, and faced former champ Luis Collazo but it ended in a no contest after an accidental but vicious clash of heads in the fourth rounds.