Vergil Ortiz Out Of Stanionis Fight Yet Again

Unbeaten welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz is,  once again, unable to fight Eimantas Stanionis. This news came Thursday afternoon from Golden Boy Promotions that the hard hitting Texan is out of their Saturday night main event in San Antonio.

From the Golden Boy mid-day Thursday statement, including that unbeaten lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield will now be elevated to the main event,

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our fighters, and we of course support Vergil’s decision 100 percent. This unfortunate event does however open the door for one of Golden Boy’s top prospects, Floyd Schofield, to accelerate his profile by headlining in his home state of Texas. We will, as always, put on a high-action card from top to bottom on July 8 and look forward to showcasing all of our fighters both in San Antonio and on DAZN.”

Our Dan Rafael reports that the 25 year old Ortiz, from Grand Prairie, TX- near Dallas, was hospitalized after feinting at his gym on Wednesday. Rafael also reports that Stanionis, the WBA’s regular 147 lb. champ, had just gotten to San Antonio Wednesday, was informed of the situation Thursday morning and has left San Antonio mid-day Thursday.

The bout was originally postponed for Stanionis having an appendectomy early in 2023. It was delayed for the second time when Ortiz had a flare up of his blood condition,  Rhabdomyolysis, which is a thickening of the blood that obviously creates serious health issues for the lungs and heart. Ortiz was previously hospitalized with that same condition in March 2022.

Ortiz is one of Golden Boy’s top remaining fighters, having scored KO’s in all 19 of his pro wins and his ranked in the top five in all four world organizations, including #1 by the WBA and the WBO. He returned to the ring last August and stopped England’s Michael McKinson in seven rounds.

It’s not clear how much, if it all, his collapse Wednesday is related to the blood disorder, again. However, it was serious enough to cancel the Stanionis fight.

The 28 year old Lithuanian Stanionis, 14-0, 9 KOs, has waited for over five months for the Ortiz reschedule. This after he secured his WBA secondary belt with a split-decision victory against Radzhab Butaev in hard fought battle in April 2022.

As for Schofield, he’s 14-0 with 11 KOs, and was last in action in a knockout of Jesus Leon on the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia undercard in April. He’s heavily favored against veteran Hakell Rhodes and Schofield definitely has marketability for Golden Boy in the future.