Eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao suffered a loss against WBA (Super) welterweight world champion Yordenis Ugas at the the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Despite Ugas connecting to the body a couple of times, Pacquiao took the offensive approach in the first round, courtesy of landing the bigger flurries. Ugas improved on his defense in the second, and went toe to toe, with giving Pacquiao a bruise under the right eye.
The Filipino veteran went on the attack in the third but Ugas showed brilliant countering moves. However, the Cuban started to show signs of slowing down with Pacquiao picking up the pace in fourth.
The fifth round saw flurries from Pacquiao who has been visibly more busier than Ugas, edging out in the round once again. The sixth saw Ugas countering as well as good exchange between the two pugilists, but the champion was able to slow down Pacquiap’s outputs.
Ugas showed off a cleaner approach, connecting to the body and walking down ‘PacMan’ with massive right hand jabs in the seventh round. Pacquiao’s offense started to fade against Ugas’s impeccable defense in the eighth, with the latter connecting one after another.
Ugas shined in the ninth round as well with his brilliant defensive work that made Pacquiao unable to find an opening to connect. The tenth saw Pacquiao’s flurrying pace exchanged with Ugas trading, but the latter continued his defensive work.
The penultimate round saw remarkable connections from Ugas, as Pacquiao’s efforts continued to fall behind. The final round saw pacey exchanges from both fighters as they embraced each other after the final bell.
The judges scored 115-113, 116-112, 116-112 for Ugas, as he retained his WBA belt as well as giving Pacquiao his eighth professional defeat of his career.
Check out the full Pacquiao vs Ugas fight card results below-
- Yordenis Ugas (c) defeats Manny Pacquiao via unanimous decision (115-113, 116-112, 116-112)
- Robert Guerrero defeats Victor Ortiz via unanimous decision (96-94, 96-94, 96-94)
- Mark Magsayo defeats Julio Ceja via 10th-round knockout
- Carlos Castro defeats Oscar Escandon via 10th-round TKO
