Eimantas Stanionis has broken his silence on his postponed and then canceled WBA secondary welterweight world title fight against undefeated challenger Vergil Ortiz Jr, which was originally set for July 8th, to be telecast on DAZN, and take place in Texas.
In a post made to his official Facebook page, Stanionis went into great detail about the events leading up to the cancelation and his frustrations currently.
"July the 5th arrived at Los Angeles airport with my whole crew [at] 8 am [in the] morning," said Stanionis via Facebook. "We met one of the Golden Boy employees there who informed one of my teammates that the face-off was supposed to happen until we arrived in San Antonio at 6 pm [was] canceled. What is the reason? In her opinion, V. Ortiz was not feeling well. All I thought at the time was he losing weight and didn’t want to change his workout schedule."
Stanionis then goes on to detail an intimate portrait of the weight-cutting process, while what seems to be chaos is occurring around him.
"There was a strange atmosphere around - the employees were lost," said Stanionis. "When asked if anything has changed about the conference, the answer is the same: 'Conference cancelled'. An hour later - an agent [called] and [requested] to meet for an interview as soon as possible. At that time, the heart shook, a bad conscience visited and all possible bad thoughts ran over, which had already signaled about the worst case scenario. Conversation with an agent in the hotel room: I was informed that V. Ortiz was dehydrated, fainted, and was taken to the hospital."
Stanionis goes into detail about the sorrow of losing the fight something he had worked fifteen months essentially for. Something that he couldn't believe wasn't happening.
That left me without a fight. In the 15 months, I had three camps, this camp, like any other, required extra income for the whole preparation, but after asking for compensation for the fight I had to fight in the main fight of the evening, I was ignored. Also referring to the agent who I hoped had the power over the compensation issue and was ignored again."
Stanionis seemed frustrated by his treatment from Golden Boy Promotions as he felt they didn't provide him fair services once his fight was called off.
"I wanted to escape that environment as soon as possible and return to Lithuania," said Stanionis. "I couldn’t have asked for anything more. But this is where the whole circus began. When asked Golden Boy to change tickets ASAP we got a reply that they do not have the budget to change our direct tickets back to LA. I am the world champion, the fight was cancelled because of me. Waited 4 hours for a response for tickets. I don't even want to write about the emotions that are viral inside me. I want to point out that this was really not a money factor, the tickets were affordable for everyone in case of "EMERGENCY", but it was a matter of principle...I flew to fight, my fight was canceled and can't take care of my return to Los Angeles? I also want to mention that there are at least 4 direct flights a day from San Antonio to LA. After contacting a Golden Boy employee again about rescheduling the same tickets, I was told she was super busy and I’m not the only one fighting. I would like to remind you that my only fight has been cancelled."
Stanionis seemed to feel as though he was getting the runaround and not being helped along the way despite no wrong doing on his behalf.
"Emotions were boiling, and I was wondering how someone is complaining to me about the workload while my team and I sit in ignorance and despair," said Stanionis.
After many hours - tickets changed: flight the next day, 4 hours. At the same time, I asked to change tickets for my coach from Lithuania Vidas Bružas from Los Angeles to Lithuania, but I was ignored. After returning to Los Angeles, I asked for a change of coach flights further. Same as mine and Emilia's flights back to Lithuania, but only changed the coach, which was great, but we were still sitting waiting for our tickets to be changed."
Stanionis would then outline his true frustrations with the whole situation.
Maybe all of these aspects, sounds insignificant, but when your fight is cancelled and you're unaware of your future career plans, you're disrespected and angrily absorb someone's job complaints, your emotions are through the roof," said a frustrated Stanionis. "Me and Emilia spent the night talking about what's next. She calmed me down, tried to remind me of the path I took, that I am a champion, that the status is mine, and I will still have a chance, but I did not believe in this scenario, I wanted to hang up my gloves on the same day. When you are Lithuanian, you are no longer interesting in this market, where most of it is business and not sports."
As for Stanionis, he has closed the door on a future fight with Vergil Ortiz Jr., and made it clear that he is not sure what is next for him.
"1. Is my fight with a v Ortiz is still going to happen? It's really not," said Stanionis. "2. What's next in my career? I have no answer at this time, I'm in the unknown."
Stanionis also insisted that this was probably his last time training in the United States, and outlines why.
"This was probably my last boot camp in the US," said Stanionis. "Although how corny such sayings may sound, my heart is in Lithuania, and when preparing for the fight in Lithuania the level of motivation and emotional attitude differ like day and night. Being at home and in my homeland, I enjoy every day and live boxing. Partners are the only problem, but this problem can also be solved. And what's next, I'll find out how my USA representatives would say, "let's see what we can do in a couple of weeks"
