The long-awaited return to boxing: E.Stanionis – G.Maestre (LIVE)

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, the 29-year-old WBA regular welterweight world champion Eimantas Stanionis (14-0-0, 9 knockouts) will return to the boxing ring after a 2-year hiatus and fight the 37-year-old Venezuelan at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (USA) Gabriel Maestre (6-0-1, 5 KOs).

This fight will take place on the day of Cinco de Mayo, an important holiday for Mexico, and will warm up the main fight of the evening between Mexican boxing legend Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Jaime Munguia.

The fight between E. Stanionios and G. Maestre will be the first on the pay-per-view program, so it should start around 3:00 a.m. at night or a little later. You will be able to follow the progress of the fight “Sportas.lt” on the portal.

G. Maestre is ranked 4th in the WBA ranking – only E. Stanionis’ mandatory challenger Shakhram Gijasov, former world champion Errol Spence and scandalous Conor Benn are ahead of him.

G. Maestre last fought last August. This time, the Venezuelan defeated the 22-year-old American Travon Marshall (8-1-0, 7 knockouts) by technical knockout in the second round, for whom it was the first defeat of his career. T. Marshall repeatedly fell after G. Maestre’s punches and kept getting tangled in the ring ropes until finally the referee stopped the fight.

G. Maestre switched to professional boxing only in 2019. In amateur boxing, he triumphed at the Pan American and South American Games, and in 2013 won bronze at the World Championships. in 2015 the Venezuelan already fought with E. Stanionius in the round of 16 of the World Championship – that time the Lithuanian celebrated a 3:0 victory.

G. Maestre was mentioned among the possible rivals of E. Stanionis back in 2021, but then his reputation was somewhat damaged by a scandalous victory after 12 rounds by unanimous decision of the judges (115:112, 117:110, 114:113) against the American Mykal Fox.

E. Stanionis last fought in 2022. on April 16, when he defeated Rajab Butajeva by split decision and won the WBA regular welterweight world champion title.

E. Stanionis had to return to the ring earlier and his fight against Vegil Ortiz Jr. was planned, which will be held in 2022. the “Golden Boy Promotions” agency representing V. Ortiz won the auction held in December, and paid as much as 2.3 million for that right. US dollars. 75 percent of the prize pool was to go to E. Stanionis and his representatives, and 25 percent – for V. Ortiz’s team.

For the first time, it was planned that E. Stanionis and V. Ortizas would meet in 2023. March 18 However, right before leaving for the USA, the Lithuanian needed an urgent appendicitis operation, so the fight had to be postponed. The fight was then scheduled to take place in 2023. on April 29, but it had to be canceled due to V. Ortiz’s health problems. V. Ortiz again developed rhabdomyolysis – the breakdown of striated skeletal muscle cells. Finally, their fight was supposed to take place in 2023. in July, but a few days before the duel V. Ortiz was taken to the hospital and the fight was cancelled.

Since then, E. Stanionis kept getting promises that he would find out his future opponent “next month”, but this continued until April of this year, when it was officially announced that E. Stanionis’ opponent would be G. Maestre.