Stanionis vs Gonzalez results and highlights: Eimantas Stanionis stops Janer Gonzalez, Eumir Marcial wins pro debut

Lithanian welterweight Eimantas Stanionis stayed unbeaten by breaking down and eventually stopping Janer Gonzalez in the ninth round of tonight’s PBC on FS1 main event.

Stanionis (12-0, 9 KO) worked and worked throughout the fight, landing frequently and accurately, and dropping Gonzalez (19-4-1, 15 KO) in the second, eighth, and ninth rounds to hand the 33-year-old Colombia his fourth straight loss, and third straight inside the distance.

The 26-year-old Stanionis, trained at the Wild Card by Marvin Somodio, had just fought on Nov. 4, when he put Justin DeLoach away in the ninth round, too. That fight was more competitive than this one, in that DeLoach did win some rounds, but the end was pretty much the same. It seemed pretty clear here that Gonzalez didn’t want much more after the knockdown late in the eighth, but he did come out firing in the ninth. The first clean right hand that landed ended it, though.

Stanionis worked to both the head and body, looked dialed in on offense, and ate what came back from Gonzalez quite well. He’s with the right outfit to be a welterweight if he wants to face the top names, and obviously he will sooner or later. If you haven’t already put him on your radar, you should now. Even beyond being quality, he’s entertaining to watch, landing 207 of 517 (40%) of his total punches in this one.

Eumir Marcial UD-4 Andrew Whitfield

Give some legitimate respect to Whitfield (3-2, 2 KO), a 29-year-old paper mill worker who has only ever fought in places like Worley and Lapwai, Idaho, and Great Falls, Montana, before this one where he was matched with a Marcial (1-0, 0 KO), a Filipino middleweight who had qualified for the 2020 Olympics, which didn’t happen so he went pro instead.

Marcial’s pro ceiling might be a little low; at 25, he’s a bit old for where he’s at now, and it’s not like he has some amazing amateur career, he was a pretty good amateur who finally busted through into the Olympics that didn’t happen. But this was very fun. Marcial threw a ton of punches, landed a ton, busted Whitfield up pretty bad, but man did Whitfield eat some shots and just keep coming forward.

Fernando Molina UD-6 Teodoro Alonso

Molina (4-0, 2 KO) is an 18-year-old Mexican lightweight who has some flash and style to his game but seems a bit hung up on his flash and style still, which can happen with young fighters facing opponents who can’t really bother them. But this was his second straight go to a six-round distance, too.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing — he’s won all the rounds in these fights — but it could lead to a reality check sometime, too. That’s not a WARNING from Expert Analysis Me, just a little thought. Molina has done his job, but he’s young and young fighters can get ahead of themselves. But if he tightens his game up some, focuses on what really works instead of just “looking good,” he looks like yet another good young prospect.

Jose Perez TKO-4 Jose Edgardo Garcia

A really fun featherweight opener. Perez (9-1-1, 4 KO) is a 25-year-old California fighter, a protege of sort sof Leo Santa Cruz, and man, he’s definitely got some Young Leo to his style, and Garcia (13-1-2, 9 KO) was right there to scrap with him.

But the 32-year-old Garcia, originally from Honduras and now fighting out of Houston, got cracked and staggered with a stiff left hook early in the fourth round, and the younger man picked him apart from there, finally shaking him again on another hook, and then putting him down with a clean right hand. That was it. Can’t say with any certainty with Perez’s real ceiling might be, but I’ll never argue with televised fights from a guy who fights like he does.