Grand Prairie's favorite son will return home, officially, On April 29th, or about as close to home as possible. Virgil Ortiz, the #1 contender per the WBA will fight for his first major world title as he takes on WBA "Regular" World Champ Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs) of Kaunas, Lithuania. The bout will take place at College Park Center at The University of Texas at Arlington campus and will be aired on DAZN! The North Texan took to Facebook yesterday to formally announce his fight that was originally set to take place on March 18th. However, Stanions had to pull out due to emergency Appendectomy Surgery.
Ortiz expressed his excitement about the official announcement “I am beyond happy, knowing that we’re finally here, fighting for a world title" He also took to Facebook to let the announcement be known posting" I’m back on April 29th at UTA in Arlington, Texas
This one will be for the WBA Welterweight World Title. I’ll announce when the tickets go on sale. I’m looking forward to seeing everybody there I’m very excited about this one "
Recent DFW natives Maurice Hooker and Errol Spence had to travel to England and win their world titles on the road. Making this a unique opportunity for Ortiz and a special moment for his hometown fan base, who will get to celebrate winning the world title with him. The north Texan has built up quite a fan base in the DFW metroplex. He has continued to fight in the area over and over again. He has fought in the metroplex a total of six times and is 6-0, with all six wins coming by stoppage. He will look to continue that perfect streak on April 29th.
It is what potentially comes after this fight that makes this fight even more interesting for the undefeated Grand Prairie native. Should Ortiz win, which he is expected to, he becomes the mandatory challenger to fight the WBA super champ, Errol Spence of Desoto. That would likely be at AT&T Stadium and would be one of the biggest fights in Texas boxing history! It has been rumored, however, that Spence was going up to 154 to fight Keith Thurman, those rumors have not come to fruition but there is much speculation if Spence, a giant 147-pounder, is all done at welterweight and moving up to Jr middleweight. If that's the case, Ortiz would likely be looking at a unification fight with pound-for-pound elite and WBO champ Terence Crawford. Crawford has been in negotiations with Ortiz's promoter Golden Boy to discuss a potential multi-fight deal that would put the two champions against each other.
Ortiz last fought in August and stopped Michael Mckinson inside of nine rounds to move his record to 19-0 (19) at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Stannions is no stranger to Texas. He last fought at AT&T Stadium on the undercard of Spence vs Ugas last April. He scored a controversial and close 12-round split decision over Radzhab Butaev to capture the WBA regular strap.