Yesterday, the WBA decided to appoint a mandatory defense to the WBA World welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs) from Lithuania – he is obliged to fight the top contender and the “woman” of the division American Virgil Ortis (19-0, 19 KOs). The fighters occupy the 6th and 4th positions respectively in the vRINGe ranking.
By
data columnist Mike Coppinger, the parties have 30 days to negotiate. If they cannot reach an amicable agreement, then a promotional bidding will be scheduled. The side that outbids the opponents will receive the first right to organize the event. And the winning bet will become the prize fund of the battle.
There are two interesting points here. The first is the distribution of fees. It is strongly not in favor of Ortiz – he will get only 25%. The second point is the conflict between promoters and TV channels, because the champion performs in Al Haymon’s RVS on Showtime and Fox channels, and the contender collaborates with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy, fights on
streaming DAZN.
Previously, RVS and GBP did not hold joint boxing evenings, but just the other day the situation changed: Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta Davis – the fight is ready!
In the WBA, apparently, they are trying in every possible way not to interfere with the potential fight for the title of absolute world champion in this division between the Americans Errol Spence (WBA Super, WBC, IBF) and Terence Crawford (WBO). They promise that the winner of the fight Stanionis vs Ortiz will become the mandatory challenger.
It’s funny that this is the third consecutive (!) mandatory defense for the WBA World belt holder, and in previous fights the champions were inferior to the contenders: Radjab Butaev first took the belt from Jamal James, and then lost to Stanyonis.
Ortiz became the mandatory challenger when he beat Michael McKinson.
