Don’t expect Eimantas Stanionis to fade into the shadows.

The former WBA world champion and highly-ranked welterweight confirmed to The Ring that he’ll return on September 27, in his home city of Kaunas, Lithuania for the first time as a pro. An exact opponent hasn’t been established yet, as a list of names is still being sorted through ahead of his scheduled ten-rounder.

It will take place in Kaunas’ Zalgris Arena – which holds up to 20,000 spectators – most notably EuroLeague basketball team BC Zalgiris’ home stadium, the event will be organised by Lithuanian martial arts organisation UTMA, while Stanionis Promotions are promoting it.

As per LRT’s report, Stanionis was given permission from TGB Promotions to box among home comforts for the first time in a decade dating back to his amateur days.

For Stanionis, news of his return is somewhat surprising. The 30-year-old hasn’t made more than one appearance annually since 2021. Since then, he’s battled long stints of inactivity.

He won a 12-round split decision over Radzhab Butaev in April 2022, though had to sit on the sidelines throughout 2023 through no fault of his own.

His proposed matchup against Vergil Ortiz Jr was twice postponed over a three-month span, first April 29 and later July 8, as a Rhabdomyolysis diagnosis forced Ortiz into an unexpected period of inactivity himself.

The 26-year-old has since moved up to junior middleweight, where he has won and defended the WBC interim title with a pair of impressive 12-round decision wins over Serhii Bohachuk and most recently former WBA world champion Israil Madrimov.

Stanionis meanwhile returned to the scene just once the following year, outpointing Gabriel Maestre over 12 rounds on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jaime Munguia undercard and hoped that victory would represent enough reps to take on a career-best challenge in April.

Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs) took his WBA welterweight world title with him to Atlantic City on April 12, but failed to bring it back as Jaron Ennis made it look easy, walking through his man before violently stopping him in six rounds to be crowned unified champion at 147-pounds.

From there, it appeared Stanionis had a few decisions to make. Prior to his Ennis showdown, he floated the idea that if he fell short, he could potentially retire altogether. At the time, the impending birth of his first child with wife Emily complicated matters further.

Although he was unable to unify the division and suffered a first professional defeat, whispers of him hanging up the gloves have ostensibly vanished. His rebuild could be quick, given he’s ranked No. 4 by the WBA and No. 8 with the WBC, while still being rated as The Ring’s No. 2 welterweight behind WBO titleholder Brian Norman Jr (27-0, 21 KOs).

The pathway is there: string together a few notable victories and he could be back on track for another world title shot in a division Ennis won’t be much longer.