Yordenis Ugas is a Cuban professional boxer, who is currently holding WBA (Super) welterweight title. He is known for being challenged by Manny Pacquiao and for defeating him in the recent August 2021 fight. Ugas is a skilled boxer, having to win a gold medal at the 2005 World Champions and a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. He was also ranked as the world’s 5th most active welterweight boxer.
His nickname “54 Milagros” refers to his idol baseball player Aroldis Champion and Milagros is the name of his mother.
Ugas started his amateur career as a U17 cadet in 2003 and entered the junior championships in 2004, however, he lost to Amir Khan. He also got lost to Luis Franco at the featherweight division and has only finished 3rd at the nationals. Things have changed for him in 2005 when he kept on winning consecutive fights between 2005 and 2008. He also participated in the PanAm Championships in 2005, however, he lost to Serik Sapiyev.
Ugas has a long journey before turning into a professional boxer in 2019. He was once a former member of the Cuban team in the 2006 boxing World Cup, which he successfully dominated. In 2007, he defeated Yordan Frometa and Roniel Iglesias and won the PanAm Games by defeating Darleys Perez and Everton Lopez.
His first major fight was with Abel Ramos for the vacant WBA welterweight title, where he dominated most of the rounds. This resulted in a split decision, with 2 judges in favor of Ugas with a 115-113 score, while the only judge favored Ramos for 117-111.
In January 2021, Ugas already held his WBA (Super) belt when eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao’s belt was stripped because he was inactive in boxing for 2 years. He was supposed to fight as an undercard until the Nevada state forced Errol Spence Jr. to withdraw due to a torn retina. This led Ugas to replace Spence Jr. in the fight against Pacquiao.
Ugas retained his WBA (Super) welterweight belt after he had defeated Pacquiao with the result 115-113, 116-112, and 116.112.
Achievements:
2005 Mianyang Lightweight Champion2006 Baku Lightweight Champion2005 Teresopolis Lightweight Champion2006 Cartagena Lightweight Champion2007 Rio Lightweight Champion
