He won a tournament called PanAm Championships (not the PanAm Games) in 2005, however in other tournaments he lost twice to Kazach southpaw Serik Sapiyev.Īt the Senior World Championships 2005 he suffered two heavy knockdowns against Canadian southpaw Ibrahim Kamal in his third fight but managed to win. In 2005 he moved up to lightweight where he was more successful, winning the Cuban Championships from 2005 to 2008 and turning into a star. On other occasions he lost twice to countryman Luis Franco at featherweight, he finished third at the nationals 2004 at featherweight. Ugás was U17 (cadets) world champion in 2003 but lost at the junior championships in 2004 to Amir Khan. Ugas' nickname, 54 Milagros, comes from two people: "54" refers to baseball player Aroldis Chapman who wears the number 54, and is Ugas' best friend "Milagros" is the name of Ugas' mother. He is also ranked as the eighth-best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec. As of October 2021, he is ranked as the world's third-best active welterweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, The Ring magazine and BoxRec. As an amateur he won a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships and bronze at the 2008 Olympics, both in the lightweight division. He also challenged for the WBC welterweight title in 2019.
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Ugas, meanwhile, proudly reflected on his inspiring journey during their final press conference Thursday at AT&T Stadium, where he spoke of the importance of freedom for fellow Cubans.Yordenis Ugás Hernández (born 14 July 1986) is a Cuban professional boxer who has held the WBA (Super) welterweight title from January 2021 to April 2022, having previously held the WBA (Regular) title from 2020 until being elevated to Super champion. Spence, a 32-year-old southpaw from nearby DeSoto, Texas, will fight for the first time since he underwent surgery to repair his damaged eye. That’s the Yordenis Ugas that you see now.”Ĭaesars Sportsbook lists Spence as a 6-1 favorite to beat Ugas, who replaced Spence as Pacquiao’s opponent on 11 days’ notice eight months ago once Spence’s torn left retina was detected during a pre-fight eye exam. I changed how I train, who I trained with, and that helped complement the reflective moments I had before I came back to boxing. But having that kid, that changed everything and it made me realize what was truly worth it in life. I had a lot of time to reflect on things.
“The first one is I had a kid in the 2½ years that I was out of boxing. “Two things for lack of a better word catapulted me into this new Yordenis Ugas that you see now,” Ugas said. Their 12-round title unification fight will headline a four-fight telecast scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) and Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) will fight for Ugas’ WBA “super” title and Spence’s IBF and WBC belts in a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event at AT&T Stadium. His career-changing victory over Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao on August 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas advanced Ugas into another enormous moment in his career – a welterweight title unification showdown with Errol Spence Jr. His lone loss during this hugely successful 5½-year stretch was a controversial 12-round, split-decision defeat to former IBF and WBC champ Shawn Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs) in March 2019 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Ugas is 12-1 since he resumed his career at 147 pounds in August 2016, when he unanimously out-pointed favored eventual WBA world welterweight champ Jamal James (27-2, 12 KOs) at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. This is the fifth world champion that I’m gonna be facing and eighth undefeated fighter I’m gonna be going up against. “It’s really an incredible change for me the past 6½ to seven years,” Ugas said. The 35-year-old Ugas also changed his team, now led by respected Cuban trainer Ismael Salas, jumped up two weight classes – from lightweight to welterweight – and eventually moved his training base from Paterson, New Jersey, to Las Vegas. Raising his 6-year-old son, who has autism, lit a fire under Ugas that he didn’t previously have to motivate him. The biggest change Ugas underwent during his hiatus was that he became a father to Yordenis Ugas Jr. Thank God that life has given me a second chance to get back into the sport and to accomplish everything I have wanted to accomplish.
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“I didn’t really consider full on retirement at any point. “I always knew that coming back was a possibility,” Ugas told.
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