Yordenis Ugas Wants To Fight Errol Spence Jr. Next

Yordenis Ugas will take any title shot he can secure later this year.

If he could choose, though, Ugas would like to challenge unbeaten IBF and WBC welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr. after facing Mike Dallas Jr. on Saturday night. If the Cuban-born Ugas defeats Dallas in a 10-rounder FS1 will televise as a main event from Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, he should be in position to land a title fight next.

“If I could pick, I would fight Spence next,” Ugas told BoxingScene.com. “That’s the fight I want.”

Spence said last month that he intends to box a top opponent in his first fight since suffering cuts to his face and dental damage during a one-car accident that occurred early the morning of October 10 in downtown Dallas. If Spence returns to the ring late in the spring or early in the summer, as Spence suggested during an interview FOX aired December 21 from Ontario, California, Ugas is ready to fight the powerful southpaw from DeSoto, Texas.

“Whenever he wants to fight,” Ugas said, “I’m ready to do it. I just want the chance to fight Spence.”

The 33-year-old Ugas is the WBC’s number three contender in the welterweight division. The Las Vegas resident is rated number one among the WBA’s contenders in the 147-pound division and should be due a shot at Manny Pacquiao’s title.

Ugas would prefer facing Spence (26-0, 21 KOs), whom Ugas thinks did enough to beat Shawn Porter in his last fight.

“It was a close fight, an entertaining fight,” Ugas said. “But I think Spence did enough to beat Porter.”

Ugas is even surer that he did enough to top Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) in their 12-round fight for the WBC crown Porter owned before losing it to Spence on September 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Porter won their bout by split decision last March 9 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

“If I fight Spence, I think I would be able to do things technically that Porter couldn’t do when he fought [Spence],” Ugas said. “It would be a more technical fight. I would give him a very difficult fight.”

Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs) bounced back from his close loss to Porter by easily out-boxing Omar Figueroa Jr. (28-1-1, 19 KOs) in their 12-round fight on the Pacquiao-Keith Thurman undercard July 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The 33-year-old Dallas (23-3-2, 11 KOs), of Bakersfield, California, is 4-0-1 in just five fights in the six years since Lucas Matthysse knocked him out in the first round of their January 2013 bout in Las Vegas.