Everyone knows Manny Pacquiao’s story.
It is an amazing one that will be spoken about for centuries after we all are gone from this earth. Without a doubt, he is a legend and one of the greatest boxers ever to lace up the gloves. He is so great even at the age of 42, many people, myself included, gave him an excellent shot at beating the prime #1 welterweight in the world Errol Spence Jr.
Sadly, Spence’s detached retina derailed the fight, but it also presented an opportunity for someone you might not know much about, Yordenis Ugas. In a way, this is karma shining a positive light on Ugas, who has been screwed by a lot of people over the last couple of years but has always kept a smile on his face, a positive attitude, and just kept working in the hopes of an opportunity like this.
Ugas was a Cuban boxing star and won a Bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, but did you know the Ugas tried to defect to the US six times to escape the poverty and hardships of Cuba? After each failed attempt, he was JAILED before finally making it to the US in 2010.
If you want to know how bad it can be for Cuban boxers, here is just an example.
“Gold medals are wonderful, but athletes can’t eat their gold medals,” said Miami-based boxing trainer Roberto Quesada, who coached in Cuba from 1980 to 1991 before defecting.
Three reigning Olympic champions – heavyweight Odlanier Solis, flyweight Yuriorkis Gamboa and light flyweight Yan Barthelemy – sold their medals to buy food for their families in Cuba and then bolted from a team training camp in Venezuela in December 2006.
It was a tough road for Ugas.
After a promising start to his career, he hit a roadblock, and it looked for a while that his career might be over.
After winning bronze at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Ugas turned professional in 2010 and relocated to America from his home in De Santiago, Cuba. He began his professional career in Miami without Salas and started with an 11-0 record at super lightweight.
Despite the strong start, Ugas, 32, went 3-3 in his next six fights to drop his record to 14-3. The first two of his three defeats came against then-undefeated fighters, Johnny Garcia and Emanuel Robles. Both fights were close, controversial split-decision verdicts that did not go his way.
After losing for the third time clearly to super lightweight contender Amir Imam in May 2014, the former amateur standout knew he had to make a change if he was to succeed in the professional ranks. Following that fight, Ugas took a two-year break from the sport.
“At that time, I was reflecting and organizing my life,” said Ugas.
This was the make-or-break time for Ugas.
When he stepped in the ring with undefeated and heavily touted contended Jamal James, most people assume he would lose, especially after the two-year layoff.
But, to many people’s surprise, he beat the brakes off James.
This set him on a path to slowly and methodically moving up the ranks of the welterweight division. Ugas kept winning fights that he was the underdog in when he got the opportunity to fight against the WBC Welterweight champion Showtime Shawn Porter in a headline PBC on FOX event.
Most figured this would just be a tuneup fight before Porter would fight Errol Spence Jr. in a unification bout.
According to Porter, his father, who is also his trainer at the last minute before going into the fight, told him they would try something new and just for him to box Ugas and not bully him like Porter normally does.
Whether you believe that changed the trajectory of the fight, you can’t deny that Ugas, in most people’s eyes, won the fight, and if referee Jack Reiss didn’t miss a CLEAR knockdown where Ugas put Porter on his ass, Ugas would have been the new WBC Champion.
Sadly, there was no instant reply, and Ugas was robbed of a career-defining win.
But, the heartbreak didn’t stop there.
Porter went on to have an excellent fight with Spence Jr. while Ugas kept piling up wins.
After beating Abel Ramos for the WBA Regular Belt, he was promoted to full champion because Manny Pacquiao, who had beat Keith Thurman for the belt, has been inactive. Sadly, people were calling Ugas the paper champ because he didn’t win the belt in the ring, but that wasn’t his fault. It is the fault of the dirty sanctioning bodies.
Whatever the case, because he was now the FULL WBA Champ, he had agreed to a fight with Errol Spence Jr. to unify the belts.
It would once again be an opportunity for him to have a career-defining fight and win. Everything was signed on his part, but then out of nowhere, Pacquiao decided he wanted to fight Spence Jr after a Mikey Garcia, and Bud Crawford fight fell through.
The PBC obviously considered a Pacquiao-Spence fight much bigger than Spence-Ugas, so they relegated Ugas to undercard status. Once again, he was screwed out of a big opportunity for no-fault of his own.
The boxing gods, though, have now smiled upon Ugas.
With Spence injured, he has the opportunity of a lifetime. He will receive a career-high payday to fight Manny Pacquiao and have the opportunity to prove he is the REAL WBA champ.
If he wins, BIG fights could be on the horizon with Spence (if healthy), rematch with Shawn Porter, possible Bud Crawford fight if he becomes a free agent, or a rematch with Pacquiao.
The sky is the limit for Ugas if he can pull off what most people would see as an upset, but not me.
He has the skill, the drive, and the determination to make this happen. This is the opportunity he has been waiting a lifetime for, and we will see if he takes advantage on Saturday night.