By Jack Tiernan: Errol Spence Jr officially announced his unification fight against Yordenis Ugas today for April 16th at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) will have his IBF & WBC welterweight titles on the line when he faces WBA 147-lb champion Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) in a three-belt unification fight two months from now in Arlington, Texas.
With the timing running out, it was clear that the Spence vs. Ugas fight needed to be announced for it to have enough time to be marketed to the boxing public.
Spence, 31, will be coming off a 16-month layoff since his last fight against Danny Garcia in December 2020.
Errol would have returned to the ring last August against Manny Pacquiao, but he suffered a torn retina eye injury while sparring for that fight.
I’m back🦈!! @ATTStadium against wba champion Ugas April 16th… access code ( boxing ) on https://t.co/I8AVWxHCBI at 12pm for early tickets let’s get it ! #warready #strapseason #mandown #cowboys pic.twitter.com/qaaUFlgSEF
— Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) February 8, 2022
This is a risky match-up for Spence to be taking with him coming off eye surgery for a torn retina and long layoff. In the last three years, Spence has been involved in a terrible car crash and suffered a bad eye injury.
There are a lot of boxing fans questioning the wisdom of Spence jumping straight into a potentially dangerous fight against Ugas. We’ll see if Spence made the correct decision or not on April 16th.
The lucky Cuban talent Ugas stepped in on two weeks’ notice and defeated Pacquiao last august. After the fight, Pacquiao, 42, retired.
Now, Ugas will be looking to defeat Spence, but not send him into retirement as he did with Pacquiao.
With the money the 35-year-old Ugas will be getting to fight Spence, he’s likely hoping they can run it back for a rematch regardless of how their fight turns out on April 16th.
This isn’t the fight that the boxing public wanted to see, as they’ve been pushing for Spence to fight Terence Crawford. That match could potentially take place later this year if Spence beats Ugas, but it’ll spend on the negotiations.
Assuming Spence beats Ugas, he’ll be in possession of three titles compared to Crawford’s one. With Spence having three belts and being the bigger PPV draw, it’s going to be difficult for Crawford to justify that he deserves a 50-50 split.
That’s why we probably won’t get a chance to see Spence and Crawford fight this year.
