Errol Spence improved to 28-0 with his 22nd knockout, the first time in his last four fights the 32-year-old southpaw didn’t have to go the distance.
Errol Spence Jr. acknowledges fans after defeating Yordenis Ugas of Cuba by technical knockout in a Unified World Welterweight Championship boxing match. PA
Errol Spence Jr. became a three-belt welterweight champion by defending his WBC and IBF titles in a unification bout in front of a home crowd, when his fight against Yordenis Ugás was stopped in the 10th round on Saturday night due to the right eye of the WBA champion. which was almost completely swollen.
The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds, but at 1:44 of the 10, referee Laurence Cole sent Ugás to a corner to have his eye checked by a ringside doctor for the second time. Unlike the previous two rounds, when the fight was allowed to continue, this time it was stopped despite protests from Ugás.
Spence improved to 28-0 with his 22nd knockout, the first time in his last four fights the 32-year-old southpaw didn’t have to go the distance.
Ugás, the 35-year-old Cuban, fell to 27-5.
Cole originally sent Ugás to the corner with just under a minute left in the eighth round, when the doctor spent a long time checking the fighter’s peripheral vision before the fight resumed.
Two rounds before that, Ugás landed a blow that sent Spence’s mouthpiece flying across the mat. Before the hometown favorite could pull himself together, Ugás sent a left-right combo to the head that sent Spence stumbling towards the ropes, although he didn’t fall.
Seconds later, Cole paused the trick, picked up the mouthpiece, and sent Spence to his corner to put it back in place.
As Ugás kicked off Spence late in the sixth, as he had done many times before, Spence and the AT&T Stadium crowd were tense. Spence started hitting Ugás with body shots and face shots in the seventh.
Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford for the undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO world welterweight titles is the only fight that needs to happen next… pic.twitter.com/WeSWfR4Wym
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) April 17, 2022
Spence was back in the ring for his first fight in over 16 months, since a 12-round unanimous decision over Danny Garcia in December 2020. It was also at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
The question now is whether there will be a fight with Spence and undefeated WBO champion Terence Crawford to crown an undisputed champion in the 147-pound division. Spence had said before the fight that he was aiming for this, and repeated it in the ring afterwards.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) last fought in November, a 10th round TKO of former champ Shawn Porter in the WBO title defense for the fifth time since winning it. claimed almost four years ago.
Canelo Álvarez became the first undisputed four-belt super middleweight champion at 168 pounds last November when he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round. The pound-for-pound Mexican superstar added the IBF title to his own WBC, WBA and WBO belts.
It was Spence’s sixth defense of the IBF title he has held since May 2017. But it was only the second fight for the southpaw known as “The Truth”, and the second defense of the WBC title he has held. he won with a split decision over Porter in September. 2019.
A month after beating Porter in 2019, Spence flipped his Ferrari while speeding down a Dallas street in the early morning. Spence was ejected but suffered no fractures or fractures and was treated for facial lacerations.
Spence was again given the all-clear to train after doctors told him he had no brain bleeds. He returned to the ring with a 12-round unanimous decision over Garcia.
But there was another setback when he was preparing for a fight against eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao last August. Spence suffered a retinal tear in training, and Ugás replaced him in that fight on 11 days notice – and won a 12-round unanimous decision over Pacquiao.
It was the fourth straight win for Ugás since a loss in a WBC title fight to Porter in March 2019, about 6½ months before Spence regained that belt.
Ugás had a lot more time to prepare for Spence, but only lost for the second time in 14 fights since losing back to back in 2014.
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