Pacquiao vs. Ugas: Why You Should Watch This Fight

 Fight: Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) vs. Yordenis Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs)

Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: August 21, 2021
Weight class: Welterweight (147 lbs)
Major title(s) on the line: WBA Super World Welterweight title
TV/Stream: FOX PPV
Line (Bovada): Pacquiao: -400, Ugas: +300  (8/21/21)
Ring Magazine Rankings: Pacquiao: #3 ranked welterweight, Ugas: #5 ranked welterweight
Style: Pacquiao: Southpaw, Ugas: Orthodox

Why you should watch this fight

Manny Pacquiao vs. Errol Spence was set to be the biggest fight of the summer - an 8-division champion in Pacquiao universally recognized as one of the great pound-for-pound boxers of all-time vs. an undefeated, two-belt welterweight champion in Spence, considered arguably the best welterweight in the world and one of the top 5-6 boxers pound-for-pound in the world today. That was until Spence - only 10 days prior to the fight - had to abruptly pull out of the match after doctors uncovered a retinal tear in his left eye. 

Spence was replaced by Cuban boxer Yordenis Ugas, who was elevated from WBA Regular to WBA Super welterwieght champion this past January after Pacquiao was stripped of his title due to inactivity. (Pacquiao had won that WBA Super welterweight belt in his most recent fight way back in April 2019, a split decision vs. then-undefeated champion Keith Thurman.)

Given the ill-timed postponements of several highly-anticipated pay-per-view championship fights in recent weeks (Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant, Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder, Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos as some examples), Pacquiao vs. Ugas has emerged as possibly still the biggest, most intriguing matchup of the summer.  The fight pits an mega-popular legend in Pacquiao - the Boxing Writer's Association of America's Fighter of the Decade for the 2000s, WBC and WBO's Fighter of the Decade for the 2010s, and the only fighter in boxing history to hold world championships across 4 decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s) - vs. a very solid but unheralded Cuban fighter in Ugas in what will be by far the biggest fight in Ugas's career. Ugas, a bronze medalist for Cuba during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, sports an unremarkable 26-4 record as a pro but has won 11 of his last 12 fights since 2014 - with the lone loss being a controversial split decision loss to then WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter. (I personally scored that fight a draw.)

Pacquiao is 42 years old (turns 43 in December) and - having not fought in over 2 years - is coming off by far the longest layoff of his professional career. Pacquiao's two previous longest layoffs were the 12-month layoff he took after his controversial unanimous decision loss to Jeff Horn in Australia and the 11.5-month layoff he took after getting knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez. If Pacquiao wins Saturday night's fight he regains the WBA Super welterweight belt that was stripped from him due to inactivity, and sets himself up for a possible superfight with Spence in 2022 after Spence recovers from his eye injury (or even a possible superfight with undefeated WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who Pacquiao came extremely close to agreeing to terms with for a fight in the Middle East this summer, if Spence doesn't recover in time).

If Ugas wins, it would be the biggest win in the storied history of Cuban boxing (even if Cuba doesn't recognize the accomplishments of defected athletes such as Ugas) and sets him up with a possible unification fight with Spence in early 2022.   

Pacquiao vs. Ugas will be the first pay-per-view event hosted by Fox since Fox co-hosted the Wilder/Fury II boxing event with ESPN back in 2020.