Via Huck Allen: IBF/WBC Weight Champion Errol Spence Jr. (27-0.21 KOs) weighed in at 146.25 pounds on Friday in a balance match against WBA champion Yordenis Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) on Saturday night, live on Showtime. Ugas, 35 years old, reached a weight of 146.75 lbs.
Physically, Spence looks better today than he’s ever had in his career, and that includes his 2017 battle against Kell Brook.
Spence is at his peak, cutting back and not showing the same tired look he did in his last game against Danny Garcia in 2020.
Spence vs. three-round third-place unified match. Ugas will be shown on Showtime pay-per-view at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The winner will try and set up an undisputed fight against WBO champion Terence Crawford, who could be in the ring on Saturday night to boost excitement for the showdown later this year.
Ugas is the underdog in this fight, and he will need to step his game up above what he showed in the toughest bouts of his career against Manny Pacquiao and Shawn Porter . That version of Ugas won’t be good enough to defeat Spence.
To be Saturday’s winner, Ugas will need to increase his work rate significantly and add more power to his game.
In other words, the Cuban boxer will need to change his boxing DNA to become something he hasn’t been in the past, and that may not be possible.
Micah is us right now.#SpenceUgas: https://t.co/hm8UTDacri pic.twitter.com/1LMe1QmiZl
– SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) April 15, 2022
“I think he has a lot to prove, and Ugas has challenges where he wants to show the world that he has the potential to come back great,” said Derrick James. Against TV Hub about Errol Spence Jr. and his thoughts on Saturday’s fight against Yordenis Ugas.
“I think Ugas is an extraordinary warrior. We’re not thinking about Terence Crawford right now. The focus is on making Errol better, although that will be something to build into a fight.
“We are only 100% focused on Ugas. In the fight with Shawn Porter and the fight with Danny Garcia, the difference was in the fight with Danny, he worked in therapy for months. We didn’t go into therapy. He’s been training and it hurts, hurts and hurts to fight day [against Danny].
“For this war [Ugas]he started camping and fresh and he didn’t feel pain like he did during his fight with Danny Garcia because he didn’t have an accident.
“You see the same strength as when he fought Kell Brook. The whole drive and determination is the same as when he fought the fight with Brook,” James said of Spence being revived for the Ugas clash.
“He’s very vicious, punches ferociously, is very strong and very physical,” James said when asked what was different about Spence in this fight with Yordanis from his last fight with Danny Garcia.
