Yordenis Ugas is a prime example of being in the right place, at the right time. Ugas, on eleven days’ notice, accepted the chance of a lifetime when he was asked to fill-in for Errol Spence after an injured retina forced him to withdraw from his fight with Manny Pacquiao.
Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) in defense of his WBA welterweight championship, stunned Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39KOs) a former eight-division world champion and future Boxing Hall of Famer, via unanimous-decision after twelve rounds.
PACQUIAO vs. UGAS was the main event of a PBC on FOX Pay-Per-View live from the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV.
In addition to Ugas winning the biggest fight on the largest stage of his professional career, last night may very well have been the last time we’ve seen Pacquiao fight. If not, it was clear that a 42-year-old Pacquiao, who looked sensational since signing with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) in victories over Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman in 2019, is at the end of his illustrious 26-year career.
Pacquiao, who hasn’t fought since July 2019, has clearly slowed down in the two years he hasn’t fought. Pacquiao will always be Pacquiao, but he was slower, easier to hit, took longer to set up his punches, and simply couldn’t push the pace like he did years ago. Pacquiao no longer packed the blitzing speed and power we saw in career performances against Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, and Oscar De La Hoya.
Last night wasn’t meant to be a goodbye. It wasn’t supposed to be a swansong, but Pacquaio’s performance against Ugas was a clear indicator that once fighters reach a certain age, having fought at such a high-level for so long, eventually they run the risk of defeat at the hands of a younger and hungrier combatant.
Ugas, a veteran of more than 10 years as a pro fighter, only has one significant fight in his career. In March 2019, Ugas challenged Shawn Porter for the WBC welterweight title, and dropped a split-decision. Ugas did beat Abel Ramos for the WBA 147-lb. title during the pandemic without any fans last year, and yes he has quality wins over Thomas Dulorme, Omar Figueroa, Mike Dallas, and Ray ‘Mama’s Boy’ Robinson, but in order to be recognized as the best at welterweight, you have to defeat guys like Porter, Spence, Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia, and Terrence Crawford.
Spence’s injury put Ugas in position to defeat one of the biggest names in boxing over the last twenty years on the world stage. Ugas did well enough through twelve rounds to outwork Pacquiao. Ugas controlled the pace of the fight behind his left-jab and was accurate with his right hand. Ugas landed the harder shots, as his punches had more impact compared to Pacquiao’s many flurries which had little pop. Ugas managed to bloody and swell-up Pacquiao’s face.
Pacquiao threw more total punches (815-405), but Ugas landed more (151-130) at a higher percentage (37% to 16%). Although Ugas landed more jabs (50-42) and a greater percentage (21% to 9%), the difference in the fight was the greater accuracy of the power-punches landed (59%-26%).
The judges scored the contest 116-112 (twice) and 115-113.
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