By Keith Idec

Eimantas Stanionis displayed skill and poise Friday night while beating up a more experienced opponent.

The welterweight prospect picked apart Levan Ghvamichava for eight rounds and convincingly won a unanimous decision at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 24-year-old Stanionis (7-0, 5 KOs), who battered Ghvamichava to the body and head throughout their bout, won by big margins on all three judges’ scorecards (80-72, 79-73, 79-73) in a fight broadcast by FS1.

The 33-year-old Ghvamichava, a native of Georgia, is 2-3 in his past five fights and slipped to 18-4-1 overall.

Stanionis, who fought for Lithuania in the 2016 Summer Olympics, landed jabs and right hands during the eighth round and finished this one-sided fight as strong as he appeared during many of the previous rounds.

Ghvamichava landed several shots to Stanionis’ head early in the seventh round. Those brief moments of success made Stanionis fire back hard shots of his own and kept Ghvamichava boxing off his back foot.

Stanionis continued to pressure Ghvamichava throughout the sixth round, when he backed up Ghvamichava with punches to his head and body. Ghvamichava was active in the fifth round, but still couldn’t keep Stanionis from coming forward and landing to his head and body.

Stanionis consistently landed to Ghvamichava’s body during the fourth round. Stanionis landed a hard jab and followed it with a flush right hand about 1:15 into the third round.

Stanionis’ stiff jab got Ghvamichava’s attention with around 30 seconds to go in the second round. Stanionis knocked Ghvamichava backward with a right hand with about a minute to go in the first round, which he completely controlled.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.