Fighting for the first time in 16 months, Errol Spence Jr. took a while to find his rhythm, but he eventually did, picking up his third welterweight championship belt in front of his hometown crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on April 16.
Spence and his opponent, Yordenis Ugás, who suffered a broken right orbital bone, went ten rounds before the referee called a TKO.
Spence defended his World Boxing Council (WBC) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles while taking Ugás’ World Boxing Association (WBA) belt.
The fight was scheduled for twelve 3-minute rounds, but with 1:44 remaining in the tenth, referee Laurence Cole sent Ugás to a corner to have his eye, which had swollen shut, checked out by a ringside doctor for the second time in the match. Unlike two rounds earlier, when the doctor allowed the fight to continue, he ended it this time despite protests by Ugás.
“I think when the fight first started, I was kind of impatient,” Spence said. “Later rounds, when I started setting my shots up, and placing my shots and picking my shots, and not throwing it hard, but letting them go, I was catching him a lot and working him down. I felt him breaking down because he wasn’t throwing like he usual[ly] does.”
The 32-year-old Dallas native improved his professional record to 28-0 and notched his 22nd career knockout. It was his first knockout in his last four fights.
Ugás, the 35-year-old Cuban, dropped to 27-5 professionally and had to leave the stadium in an ambulance. It was his first loss since suffering back-to-back losses in 2014.
“I kept punching, and I thought the ref was going to stop it a lot earlier,” Spence said.
Cole had initially sent Ugás to be examined by the ringside doctor with just under a minute left in the eighth round. The doctor spent an extended period checking his vision before allowing the fight to resume.
Ugás’ highlight came when he got the first clean shot of the match in the sixth round. He delivered a blow that sent Spence’s mouthpiece flying onto the mat. Before Spence could gather himself, Ugás connected a left-right combo to Spence’s head that sent him stumbling backward against the ropes.
The referee paused the match a few seconds later to allow Spence to put his mouthpiece back in.
“I’ve got to get a new mouthpiece. … It’s not molded to my mouth; got to bite down real hard for it to stay in my mouth. That’s my fault, a rookie mistake,” Spence said. “Rookie mistake, too, looking off and looking for my mouthpiece, and then I get punched liked three times. That was my fault, too. Have to protect yourself at all times.”
The flurry by Ugás in the sixth reenergized the crowd of 39,946 people, mainly cheering for the hometown fighter. Spence seemed to feed off the crowd’s energy as he came out sharp in the seventh with several shots to Ugás’ body and face.
According to CompuBox, Spence landed 216 of 784 punches, 70 of which were body shots, while Ugás connected on 96 of 541.
The win gave Spence his sixth successful defense of the IBF title that he has held since May 2017 and his second defense of the WBC title that he won in a split decision over Shawn Porter in September 2019.
The next logical fight in the welterweight division appears to be between Spence and undefeated World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion Terence Crawford. The winner would become the undisputed champion with all four belts in the 147-pound division. In the lead-up to Saturday’s fight, Spence had said that his ultimate goal was a fight with Crawford.
“I’ve been saying it this whole week,” Spence said, “one belt to get.”
Crawford was not ringside to watch the bout, but he tweeted congratulations to Spence afterward, writing, “great fight now the real fight happens. No more talk no more side of the street let’s go!!!!”
Crawford (38-0, 29 knockouts) last fought in November when he scored a 10th-round TKO over the former champion Porter for his fifth successful defense of the WBO title since winning it nearly four years ago.
If Crawford and Spence meet to crown an undisputed welterweight champion, the winner would be the second undisputed champion in boxing. Last November, Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez became the undisputed four-belt super middleweight (168-pound) champion when he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round. Alvarez added the IBF title to his WBC, WBA, and WBO belts by winning against Plant.
