Terence Crawford vs Yordenis Ugas

[gilgamesh]

Apparently this matchup is being talked about. Ugas himself mentioned it so I figure it has some merit. I'm a big fan of Ugas, and I'm glad to see him getting an opportunity. I would've preferred he get one against a Keith Thurman or a Danny Garcia, but this one will really show just how good he's capable of being. Crawford is obviously one of the big dogs at Welterweight.

What do you guys think of this bout?

[lazboy]

It’s a top fight. Ugas proved himself to be amongst the top. I thought he edged Porter...Clean, hard punches v activity/volume. Difficult to score.

Of course the ultimate fight is Crawford Spence. Shame on both if they don’t fight soon.

[Cent0089]

Very good fight, looking forward to this

[DrDuke]

Crawford will outbox Ugas. Maybe he will score a stoppage in the later rounds. Hopefully this fight happens as soon as possible.

[margaret thatcher]

Craw dad E Z werk

[apollo creed]

Good fight for TC if it happens. Imo Ugas would be TC's toughest opponent.

[Enlightened-One]

I didn't see this thread and I created one similar, but not quite the same topic.

Ugas is a decent fighter, but Bob Arum should refrain from constant name-dropping of the 147lbs divisions biggest stars, because Top Rank either can't or won't attempt to deliver the names they keep discussing with the media.

Anyway, Crawford beats Ugas, perhaps by decision, but a win won't do anything for Bud's legacy or reputation.

It's only a stay busy payday and nothing more.

There is one potential obstacle for this bout. And that’s the fact that Ugas isn’t even rated by the WBO at 147lbs, so the Cuban wouldn’t be a sanctioned title challenger.

Unless the WBO suddenly caves into Top Rank’ demands and revises their rankings, but how do they demote other fighters if no one has been competing since March?

How can the WBO justify such conduct without opening themselves up to some sort of legal liability from one of the contenders that were unfairly dropped from the rankings through no fault of their own and without proper justification?

Put it this way, the WBO’s ratings were last updated on the 8th March and they must have used some sort of logic/rationale to formulate them.

And if nothing… and I literally mean nothing has changed since that date, then how on earth can the WBO suddenly revise their rankings in light of no bouts having taken place?

It’ll be funny if they do, because it’ll provide legally enforceable evidence about the WBO being in Top Rank’s back pocket.

We’ve seen this before with the WBO, when Sergey Kovalev faced two unranked 175lb-ers back-to-back (Vyacheslav Shabranskyy & Igor Mikhalkin) when they suddenly became top-ten world-rated light heavyweights shortly after Main Events had signed those bouts.

[brilo33]

decent fight this ugas is quite unorthodox style when fighting , tough aswell, allways in good shape long arms looks the boxer, expect slow fight crawford on points ,will it happen though hate talking on maybes

[fightseer]

Craw dad E Z werk

Ugas isn't easy work for anybody. That guy can fight.

[margaret thatcher]

E Z werk Crawdaddy

[SmoothStyle1]

Good comeback fight but Crawford wins via stoppage.

#Levels

[Bandog]

A few years back people didn't think Ugas was worthy of a fight with Spence, but now he is a real threat to someone like Crawford? Personally I think his close fight with Porter gave the illusion he is better than he is, thanks to a stupid tactical fight with Porter trying to out-box Ugas, instead of his normal ugly style. Don't get me wrong, I think Ugas is a good boxer, but just not a real threat to Crawford. Decent fight but not a great fight.

[margaret thatcher]

A few years back people didn't think Ugas was worthy of a fight with Spence, but now he is a real threat to someone like Crawford? Personally I think his close fight with Porter gave the illusion he is better than he is, thanks to a stupid tactical fight with Porter trying to out-box Ugas, instead of his normal ugly style. Don't get me wrong, I think Ugas is a good boxer, but just not a real threat to Crawford. Decent fight but not a great fight.

We think he's such a big threat that he's down 20-1 in the poll lol

[Enlightened-One]

The WBO 154lbs world champion, Patrick Teixeira, has today called out Terence Crawford.

Teixeira is promoted by Golden Boy, who occassionally works with Top Rank, so there doesn't seem to be any political hurdles preventing this bout from taking place (especially considering Bob Arum’s ludicrously intimate relationship with the WBO).

If the Brazilian was a big name, then the bout couldn’t happen, because I guess this would undermine GBP’s network (DAZN), but Teixeira isn’t, so I think this fight is likely to be made.

Yordenis Ugas isn’t even ranked by the WBO at 147lbs, he's likely to challenge for the (soon to be made) vacant regular WBA title next and he’s also an Al Haymon fighter, so Top Rank may choose to take the easier route, by going for the history-making fight against Patrick Teixeira.

Becoming a four-weight world titleholder, by beating a champion of Patrick Teixeira's calibre, should be considered as being “low hanging fruit” for a pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford.

[jujigatame]

This is a weird fight. I thought Crawford didn't wanna fight Porter because if he was gonna do a co-promotion with PBC he only wanted their best? Now he's gonna fight Ugas? WTF?

[gilgamesh]

Good comeback fight but Crawford wins via stoppage.

#Levels

I suspect you're most likely right. I'm kinda torn here as I'm a fan of both fighters. I'll just say may the best man win, but I certainly hope that if nothing else Ugas is able to give the kinda effort that keeps his name in the mix with the other top contenders of the Welterweight division.

I'd like to see him get a crack at Thurman or Danny Garcia some time.

[gilgamesh]

This is a weird fight. I thought Crawford didn't wanna fight Porter because if he was gonna do a co-promotion with PBC he only wanted their best? Now he's gonna fight Ugas? WTF?

Aren't him and Porter supposedly friends?

[jujigatame]

This is a weird fight. I thought Crawford didn't wanna fight Porter because if he was gonna do a co-promotion with PBC he only wanted their best? Now he's gonna fight Ugas? WTF?

Aren't him and Porter supposedly friends?

No idea. I hadn't heard that.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ugas vs. Ramos Ordered For Vacant WBA "Regular" Welterweight Title; Winner To Face Butaev

More than seven months after being cheated in the ring, Radzhab Butaev is once again denied just due in his bid to become a welterweight titlist.

Measures taken by the World Boxing Association (WBA) to free up its secondary version of the welterweight title appeared to have favored the Russian contender. Included among the list of activities during the 99th annual WBA convention was the sanctioning body electing to strip Alexander Besputin (14*-0, 9KOs) of its “Regular” title. The unbeaten Russian scored a narrow win over Butaev in their vacant title fight last November, but tested positive for the banned substance Ligandrol.

The logical next step would have been for Butaev to return to his place in the welterweight rankings prior to the tainted title fight (rated number two at the time), thus facing the next highest ranked contender for the vacant strap.

Instead, it will be Yordenis Ugas (25-4, 12KOs)—the sanctioning body’s number-one contender—who will vie for the “Regular” title. The 33-year old Cuban will face Abel Ramos (26-3-2, 20KOs) of Casa Grande, Arizona for the vacant strap, with Butaev designated as the mandatory challenger in waiting to face the winner.

Ugas and Ramos both fighter under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner.

Ramos has won eight straight fights, including a literal last-second stoppage of Bryant Perrella this past February in Nashville, Tennessee. Ramos was trailing on all three scorecards heading into the 10th and final round of their Fox-televised clash before scoring two late knockdowns, the latter of the two rendering Perrella unable to continue in the eyes of veteran referee Jack Reiss.

Ugas has won two straight since a narrow defeat to then-WBC welterweight titlist Shawn Porter last March in Carson, California. The defeat to Porter snapped an eight-fight win streak largely spent wreaking havoc upon PBC welterweight prospects since returning to the sport in 2016 following a two-year absence.

A 12-round near shutout of then-unbeaten Omar Figueroa last July placed Ugas back in contention, having since marked time with a 7th round stoppage of Mike Dallas Jr. this past February in Biloxi, Mississippi.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ugas will likely take less money but fight for a Secondary world title than fight fight Crawford

[Enlightened-One]

Ugas will likely take less money but fight for a Secondary world title than fight Crawford

To be honest, did Bob Arum even submit an offer to Ugas? The Top Rank boss mentioned his name as a possibility, but I haven’t seen anything about any offers.

Anyway, anybody that follows boxing’s landscape would have realised the difficulty in making the Crawford-Ugas fight.

I called it a couple of weeks ago. See my previous posts in this thread.

Ugas wasn’t even ranked by the WBO, and he was also a PBC guy in line to challenge vacant regular WBA title.

Lots of Al Haymon guys have rejected opportunities to compete on rival networks/promoters cards, so we shouldn’t be surprised about Ugas choosing the WBA route. And we don't even know if Ugas received an offer from Top Rank to reject in the first place.

And to be fair, Yordenis earns a bigger payday facing Crawford with the WBA regular title than without it.

Terence Crawford won’t have to perform a mandatory defence of his title anytime soon, so he may face another Kavaliauskas type of opponent, or he’ll make a temporary jump to 154lbs to face the similarly unheralded Patrick Teixeira for the WBO title.

The thing is, Crawford previously said that he was unwilling to take a pay cut to fight behind closed doors or in front of a small crowd.

So we’re unlikely to see him in action in the near future unless he’s forced to change his mind.