Yordenis Ugas upset Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision in their 12-round welterweight title fight and legitimized himself as the WBA’s true 147-pound champion.
Ugas, who was a late replacement for an injured Errol Spence Jr., displayed discipline while consistently landing jabs and counter right hands.
All three judges – Dave Moretti (116-112), Patricia Morse Jarman (115-113) and Steve Weisfeld (116-112) scored the main event for Ugas.
CompuBox credited Ugas for landing 21 more punches overall than Pacquiao (151-of-405 to 130-of-815).
UGAS WANTS SPENCE JR👋@YordenisUgas wants to unify the welterweight titles and has @ErrolSpenceJr on his list💪 pic.twitter.com/itKOGeeTEn
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) August 22, 2021
According to CompuBox’s unofficial count, Ugas connected with more power punches, and at an incredibly accurate rate (101-of-171 to 88-of-340), as well as more jabs (50-of-234 to 42-of-275).
The 35-year-old Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs), who defected from Cuba after winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, proved his superiority over Pacquiao and retained the “super” title that was stripped from the Filipino legend late in January.
The Miami resident has won 12 of his past 13 fights since suffering back-to-back points defeats in 2014.
His lone loss during that stretch was a highly controversial split decision to former WBC champ Shawn Porter in March 2019. Ugas also improved to 4-0 versus southpaws since he moved up to the welterweight division in 2016.
