By Ian S Palmer
WBC Welterweight Champion Shawn Porter of Akron, Ohio will be battling it out this Saturday, March 9th when he takes on Yordenis Ugas of Cuba in Carson, California. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the USA and Canada on Fox and Fox Deportes. Porter won the vacant title his last time out when he beat Danny Garcia by unanimous decision in August. Ugas last fought in September as well when he beat Cesar Barrionuevo by a 12-round unanimous decision.
The 31-year-old Porter is 29-2-1 with 17 Kos and is also a former IBF Welterweight Champion. He lost his title via a close majority decision to Kell Brook of England in August of 2014 with his other defeat being a unanimous decision to WBA Champ Keith Thurman in June, 2016. His draw was a 10-round affair against Julio Diaz in 2012. Porter’s a blue-collar boxer with a lot of energy to burn, but isn’t known as a big knockout puncher. He’s scored his fair share of stoppages though and his current knockout ratio stands at 53 per cent.
Porter stands 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 69.5-inch wingspan. He enjoyed a fine amateur career before turning pro in 2008 and has 207 rounds under his belt since then. His best victories have been against Andre Berto, Adrien Broner, Julio Diaz in a rematch, Paulie Malignaggi, Devon Alexander, Phil Lo Greco, Erick Bone and Alfonso Gomez. Porter seems to have a pretty good chin, but Broner did manage to drop him in last round in June of 2015. Porter’s been taken the distance in 10 of his last 13 contests.
Ugas is 32 years old and now fights out of Miami, Florida. He also had an excellent amateur career and won a gold medal as a lightweight at the 2005 World Championships when he was 19 years old. He also captured gold at the Pan American Games two years later and took home the bronze medal from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He defeated Jose Pedraza, David Arce, Sadam Ali, Francisco Vargas and Darleys Perez as an amateur, but was beaten by Amir Khan.
Ugas turned pro in 2010 and has 153 rounds of experience under his belt. He carries a mark of 23-3 along with 11 Kos. He isn’t known for his power with a current knockout ratio of 42 per cent. He stands 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 69-inch reach so is two inches taller than Porter with a negligible half-inch edge in reach. Ugas’ three pro losses have been to Johnny Garcia by eight-round split decision in 2012, a 10-round split decision to Emanuel Robles in 2014 and an eight-round unanimous decision to Amir Imam in his next fight in 2014.
Ugas hasn’t faced any truly elite boxers as a pro, but has victories over Kenny Abril, Cosme Rivera, Jamal James, Bryant Perrella, Thomas Dulorme and Jonathan Batista. He has plenty of boxing skills along with a solid chin, and not much in the way of power. Basically, he’s a little similar to the champion Porter, but hasn’t been as successful as the champion as a pro.
Prediction…
This is a pretty good matchup with two solid pros who were excellent amateurs going at it. Porter’s key to winning is to throw a high volume of punches every round and make Ugas back up. He’s going to have to be wary of counter shots though as Ugas is quite skillful. Porter is naturally more aggressive and if he stays true to his usual style I think he can do enough to retain the title, but he certainly can’t take Ugas lightly.
