Newly crowned WBA “regular” welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis claims Conor Benn is being protected from facing him and he has laughed off claims a fight between them would not sell many tickets. Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn called Stanionis a “really good fighter” but said he had “zero profile” and they would only sell 5,000 tickets for that contest at a venue in London.
Stanionis, Lithuania’s first ever professional world champion, has responded to those claims by saying: “I heard what Eddie Hearn said. They don’t want the fight and that’s why he said that nobody knows me. I just laughed when I heard it, but he is just protecting his guy, it’s his job. He is promoting a guy for the future, and he knows it would be a very tough fight with me.
“But I was just laughing because there is a big, big community of Lithuanians in England and many people would fly over from my home country for that fight too, so we would sell a lot more than 5,000 tickets.
“Conor is a good fighter, he can bang, and he has power, but he has never fought anyone who would pressurise him like I would, he’s been fighting inactive guys. But a fight between us would be a lot of fun!”
Stanionis is the mandatory challenger for Errol Spence, who holds the WBA’s ‘Super’ title at 147lbs.
Spence also has the WBC and IBF welterweight belts and could yet agree to fight WBO king Terence Crawford – but Stanionis’ wants to be his next opponent.
“My contract means I am next in line to fight Spence, so I will wait for that opportunity,” said Stanionis.
“It would be cool if I could fight him for three belts because when you achieve one goal, you have to create new ones and I want the other belts. I like a challenge; I want to see where I stand and want to see how deep I can dig and how far I can go through the fire.
“I don’t know if Spence will fight Crawford next. I am a sports fan too and so I would love to see that fight but I am also a young, hungry fighter who wants the biggest fights.
“I am contracted to fight Spence next so maybe he gives up the belts and I will fight somebody else.”
Im guessing he hopes Spence will vacate and he fights somebody else, just like he been doing. He’s had a smooth road paved for him to get to a title at 14-0. Nothing about his resume says he’s ready for Spence.
Very true. Stanionis is simply talking smack to make himself marketable in this article.
Stanionis is a beast. Absolutely no doubt in my mind that both Hearn and Benn are both pissing in their panties with the mere thought of making this match.
Benn in 2!
just curious how many people Benn drew against the very not so well known Chris van Heerden at manchester arena.. was it 20,000?
Benn will scrape dude!!
Who the fook is this and where the fook did this belt come from.
He talks about CB but then goes on to say he’s next in line for Spence and will wait for that fight – thus indicating that he won’t fight Benn.
To me it seems kind of pointless to mention a fighter who is not on your radar
Good young champ/prospect, but too green for Benn or especially Spence.