By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KO’s) of Lithuania handed two-time Olympian Gabriel Maestre (6-1-1, 5 KO’s) from Barcelona, Venezuela his first defeat in winning a twelve round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Neither shyed away in the opening bell as Stanionis and Maestre exchanged at a fast pace. Picking up where they left off, Stanionis and Maestre worked inside and let their hands go in round two. Staying busy in the third, Stanionis applied pressure as Maestre held his ground and mixed it up. Stanionis began to land big in the fourth as he connected with a hard right, the Venezuelan went downstairs to the body.
Fighting inside in the fifth, Maestre kept pushing connecting short inside as the Lithuanian boxed working the jab and following up with one-two’s. Letting loose to begin the sixth, Mastre and Stanionis were on the offensive trading, the Venezuelan applied pressure going to the body and staying close, Stanionis countered with solid shots. The inside fighting continued halfways through as Stanionis and Maestre kept up the pace. In the eighth, the fight continued at a fast pace, Maestre went to the body with Stanionis working at a high rate.
Heading into the ninth, the two fighters stayed close inside exchanging as Stanionis and Maestre kept at it connecting. Late in the fight in the eleventh, the round began with trading in the center, Stanionis boxed using the crisp jab as Maestre appeared to be limited. The twelfth and final round began with an exchange in the center, Maestre then fought off his back foot as Stanionis pressured with straight shots and in the closing seconds both fighters finised strong exchanging.
After twelve rounds, the judges scored the bout 119-109, 118-110, and 117-111 in favor of Stanionis.
Excellent action fight between Stanionis vs Maestre.
The scorecards were a bit wider that what were announced.
Gabriel faded a bit in the later rounds, but he was still dangerous, it is understandable, he is 37 yo
I wish I had seen this one. Anyone who did, what are your impressions of Stanionis?
Strong and courageous fighter, did not show any ring rust. Threw plenty punches, and handled the power of Maestre pretty well.
If he used more jabs, the victory would look more clearer.
The kid from Texas will murder him. Not impressed
Fraud with a phony belt.
Damn good fight!
Would have LOVED to see Maestre as a profesional when he was younger, would’ve been champion no doubt, even at 37 he fought like a lion against a much younger and stronger lion.
Figueroa with a body eliminates Jesse. I found this fight hard to appreciate due to the styles of Figueroa and Jesse.
Referee did a poor job too many final & unnecessary warnings
What the hell was up with the DAZN announcers? It’s like they had money on Maestre. They kept saying he was badly hurting Stanionis every round, it was ridiculous, Maestre clearly did not significantly hurt his opponent once.