By Jeff Aronow: Tim Bradley believes Yordenis Ugas will come up short if he doesn’t have a method to deal with Errol Spence Jr’s high punch volume and the constant pressure he’ll be applying on Saturday night in their 147-lb three-belt unification on Showtime PPV at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The sheer number of punches that Spence will be throwing in this fight will put Ugas in a tough spot in which he’ll need to match it or put on his track shoes and run for 12 rounds.
At this point in Ugas’ career, he’s much too old to run from Spence, and even if he could, he wouldn’t do it.
With the fight taking place in Texas native Spence’s backyard in Arlington, Ugas is wise enough to know the judges would never give him the decision if he moves all night trying to survive.
Bradley wants to see a 2.0 version of the Yordenis Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) that we saw in his upset win over Manny Pacquiao last Summer on August 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On two weeks ‘ notice, the 35-year-old Ugas was brought in as a replacement opponent to face the 42-year-old superstar Pacquiao after his scheduled initially opponent Spence suffered a torn retina in sparring for the fight.
In the biggest fight of his career, the talented Cuban Ugas upset the ring-rusty Pacquiao, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision to send him into retirement.
Ugas’ downfall is his volume
“I think his downfall could be his volume. The volume of Spence, just the consistency. He’s so consistent with his offense,” said Tim Bradley to Red Gloves News in analyzing this Saturday’s Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas welterweight 2-belt indication fight.
The problem Ugas has, besides his advanced age, is the fact that he’s never been known for having a high-volume attack.
His game is based on walking his opponents down, hitting them hard with one-two combinations, and then backing away to the outside to survey the damage.
That style, which is a common one for Cuban fighters, won’t be nearly enough for him to win a decision against Spence on Saturday night.
“He’ll [Spence] take that little step back and come forward,” said Bradley. “He’ll clear some things and put the high guard up and then take a step forward and keep applying pressure,” Bradley continued about what Spence will do to defeat Ugas.
“At times, Ugas will counter, but he drops his hands quite a bit, drops his hands by the wayside. I think Spence, being the more technical fighter, being the more complete fighter as far as physical.
“He’s very physical on the inside, and he’s smart. I think he’s going to be able to figure him out. It’s going to be about pressure. No, I don’t see a stoppage.
“I want to see a 2.0 Pacquiao version of Ugas,” said Bradley. “Give me a little bit more of offense. If you give me a little bit more offense, then he can probably do something.
“Yeah, he can counter [punch], but he’s going to need more offense,” Bradley said about Yordenis Ugas, saying he will need to increase his punch volume to stay up with the sheer number of shots Spence will be throwing.
I think it’s implausible you will see more offense from Ugas than what we’ve seen from him in his last handful of fights. He’s too old to throw 100 punches per round like Spence, and if he tries, he will wear down quickly like an old clock.
Yordenis will be battling the judges
“He’s [Ugas] in Texas. I mean, he’s already down in the scorecards. It’s Texas,” said Bradley about Ugas being behind the eightball right off the bat against the Texas native Errol, who will be fighting in his backyard on Saturday night. “Ugas has got to do something, man,” said Bradley.
If Ugas fails to realize that he needs to more than match Spence’s punch output, he will be sorry for it later. Spence has the power, volume, youth, and hometown advantage against Ugas.
With everything that Ugas has going for him, he would be foolish to use the same gameplan that he employed for his last fight against Pacquiao.
That is to say, Ugas WON’T beat Spence by staying on the outside, throwing occasional looping right hands to the head.
If that’s all Ugas is bringing to the table, he might as well concede right now and raise the white flag because he’s going to get rifled by Spence on Saturday night.
