By Ian S Palmer
Former WBA Super Lightweight champion Mario Barrios of San Antonio, Texas will be battling former WBA Welterweight Beltholder Yordenis Ugas of Cuba in a 12-round bout for the interim WBC Welterweight Title this Saturday, September 30th. The fight from Las Vegas can be seen live in North America on Showtime pay-per-view while fans in the UK can catch it on FITE TV on the undercard of the Alvarez vs Charlo contest. Ugas last fought in April, 2022 when he was stopped in the 10th round by Errol Spence in a shot at his IBF and WBC Titles. Barrios last saw action in February when he halted Jovane Santiago in the eighth round to take the WBC Continental Americas Welterweight Crown.
The 28-year-old Barrios enters the ring with a mark of 27-2 with 18 Ko’s. He turned pro in 2013 following his amateur career and has 162 rounds of experience under his belt. He won the vacant WBA Super Lightweight Crown in September, 2019 when he beat Batyr Akhmedov by unanimous decision after dropping him in the fourth and 12th rounds. He then stopped Ryan Karl in the sixth round in his first title defence and lost his belt to Gervonta Davis when he was stopped in the 11th round of a competitive bout in June, 2021.
Then just eight months later he suffered his second defeat when he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to former world champion Keith Thurman. Barrios also captured the vacant WBA Inter-Continental Welterweight Title in July, 2018 by stopping Jose Roman after eight rounds. He’s listed as six-feet-tall with a 71-inch reach and carries good power in his hands as 66.7 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage.
Barrios hadn’t really taken on many legitimate top contenders until meeting Davis when he took a step up in class but he handled himself pretty well in that fight. He took a bit of a risk by moving up to welterweight to take on Thurman but did okay in that contest too. Barrios has also beaten the likes of Yardley Cruz, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Richard Zamora and Juan Jose Velasco. He also possesses good speed and will need to use his effective jab to have success against Ugas.
As for Ugas, he’s now 37 years old and fights out of Miami, Florida. He enjoyed 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, has 218 rounds of experience under his belt and carries a mark of 27-5 with 12 Kos. He measures 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 69-inch reach which means he’s giving up three inches in height and two inches in reach to Barrios. He lost a close split decision to former WBC Welterweight Champ Shawn Porter in his first shot at the title in March, 2019 before beating Abel Ramos for the vacant belt and defending it against Manny Pacquiao via unanimous decison.
His other 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. He’s also beaten Mike Dallas Jr, Omar Figueroa Jr, Kenny Abril, Cosme Rivera, Jamal James, Ray Robinson, Bryant Perrella, Thomas Dulorme and Jonathan Batista. He’s a handful for anybody but isn’t known for his power with a current knockout ratio of 44.4 per cent.
Prediction…
These are skilled welterweights with Barrios having the edge in size and power while Ugas has consistently fought a tougher level of opposition during his pro career. Ugas would probably prefer to make it a bit of an ugly fight if possible as he’s not averse to bending the rules on occasion. Both boxers have pretty good chins even though they’ve been stopped before. I’m looking forward to a hard-fought close fight. Ugas is the betting favourite but he’s 37 years old now and hasn’t fought in well over a year. This is a tossup but if Ugas is at his best he should just get past Barrios.
