Ugas hospitalized with broken orbital bone
Spence inflicts damage in welterweight title unification win
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Yordenis Ugas suffered a broken orbital bone around his right eye during his 10th-round knockout loss to Errol Spence Jr. in their three-belt welterweight title unification fight on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“First of all I wanted to apologize for not coming to thank everyone who was supporting me in person after the fights,” Ugas wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “I have a fracture in my eye and in the next few days the doctors will say how they will treat it. Last night I spent all morning in a hospital and I write these words with only one eye, the other one is still closed. But very important for me to write it for you.
“I want to thank my family, my team and every person who was supporting me. I want to congrats Errol Spence Jr., a great champ, and sharing the ring with him was an honor, he came as always sharp, and in the last rounds he hit me in the eye and everything was even more difficult.”
Spence dominated the fan-friendly fight and dished out punishment to Ugas to retain his WBC/IBF 147-pound belts and take Ugas’ WBA title.
Ugas did not attend the post-fight news conference and was instead transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
Spence appeared to damage Ugas’ right eye in the seventh round with a series of straight left hands. After the round, the ringside doctor examined Ugas’ eye in the corner but allowed the fight to continue.
Referee Laurence Cole called a timeout in the eighth round to also have the doctor check Ugas’ eye but, again, the fight went on.
By the 10th round, Ugas’ eye was swollen closed and when Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), 32, a southpaw fighting in front of his hometown fans, hurt him with an uppercut, he covered up and backed away. It was obvious he could not see the punch coming.
Cole then called another timeout to have the eye examined and this time the doctor advised him that Ugas (27-5, 12 KOs), 35, a Cuban defector fighting out of Miami, could not go on and Cole waved off the fight at 1 minute, 44 seconds.
Spence dominated almost the entire fight and when it was stopped he was ahead 88-82, 88-82 and 88-83.
“We have come this far by taking our wins and losses with humility,” Ugas continued in his post. “I am sad, but at peace. Come back from the dark. And already at this point I've fought amateur (Terence) Crawford, (and professional) Shawn Porter, (Manny) Pacquiao, Spence, some of the best fighters in history and future Hall of Famers.
“I'm proud of what I'm doing, in and out of the ring. I have won millions of hearts. With the favor of God there are great days to come. We will recover and come back stronger. Thank you all.”
Ugas lost a disputed decision to then WBC-titlist Porter in 2019 and then won four fights in a row, including a decision over Abel Ramos to win the vacant WBA belt followed by a major upset decision over Pacquiao last August in a fight made on 11 days’ notice to send the legendary eight-division champion into retirement. Ugas got the fight with Pacquiao when an injured Spence was sidelined and Ugas moved up to the main event from the co-feature spot on the card.
Photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC
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Not a shock to find Ugas's orbital bone was broken.