By Matt Lieberman: Yordenis Ugas believes he will have to box his way to a victory over superstar Manny Pacquiao this Saturday night if he wants to win in their showdown on August 14th FOX Sports PPV.
The deck is stacked against the 35-year-old Pacquiao as he tries to win a 12 round decision against Pacquiao.
While it’s possible that Ugas can win a decision, this writer wouldn’t bet on it unless he does something extraordinary on Saturday night.
It’s not that Ugas can’t win a decision because he surely can, but we’ve already seen him arguably robbed in the past in his fight with Shawn Porter in 2019.
That fight looked like a clear win for Ugas, yet the judges gave Porter a 12 round split decision. Porter is nowhere near as popular as Pacquiao.
As such, if Ugas can’t even win a decision against Porter in a fight that he completely dominated, how can he hope of getting a points win against Pacquiao?
Can Yordenius Ugas win a decision?
It might be a little naive for Ugas to assume that he can win a decision against the superstar Pacquiao. The reality is, Ugas is the B-side, who will be lucky to win any of the rounds if they’re anywhere close on Saturday.
For Ugas to win a decision, he’s going to have to win each round beyond a shadow of a doubt, and even then, he made need a knockdown or two to get the nod on the judges’ scorecards.
Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs) has been pulled from the underdog to replace the injured Errol Spence Jr. as the opponent for the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) to fight at the T–Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) had no options but to back out of the fight against the 42-year-old Pacquiao after suffering a retinal tear of his left eye during a sparring session last Monday.
Although Spence has reportedly had successful eye surgery to repair the problem, he won’t fight Manny as previously scheduled.
Ugas, 35, will be defending his WBA ‘Super World’ welterweight title against Pacquiao, which was stripped from the Filipino star earlier this year by the World Boxing Association due to inactivity.
Pacquiao wasn’t overly pleased with the WBA’s decision to strip him of his 147-lb belt, but he hadn’t defended the title since he captured the belt in July 2019.
Moreover, Pacquiao still had no fights scheduled when the WBA stripped him of his title earlier this year. Pacquiao will at least get the chance to win his WBA belt back, so it’s not all bad for him.
Ugas hoping to outbox Pacquiao
“I’m going to have to outbox him [Pacquiao] more than anything. That’s the strategy that we’re working on right now,” said Yordenis Ugas to DAZN.
“I want everyone to know that I didn’t take this fight for the money,” Ugas continued on his match with Pacquiao. “I took it for my legacy, for my reputation, and I promise to the fans that they’re going to enjoy this fight so much.
“The change in status for both him and I is a disadvantage. It’s something that he and I are both going to have to deal with. We’re both warriors, and we’re able to deal with anything,” said Ugas.
It’s going to be potentially difficult for both Pacquiao and Ugas to take this fight on short notice, as neither of them has had a lot of time to prepare.
Some boxing fans believe that Pacquiao has the advantage because he’s fought right-handed fighters his entire career, so it’s no big deal for him.
Pacquiao facing his first body puncher since 2010
Still, it’s not going to be easy for Pacquiao, given that Ugas is a body puncher, and the Filipino hadn’t fought that type of a fighter since his match against Antonio Margarito over 4000+ yesterdays ago in 2010.
Margarito was painfully slow of hand and foot and unable to use his body attack to get the better of Pacquiao.
With that said, it’s not going to be easy for Pacquiao to adjust to facing one of the best body punchers in the 147-lb division on short notice in his fight with Ugas.
If Pacquiao gets hit with too many of those body shots on Saturday, he could get taken out.