Spence beats Ugás to clinch third welterweight belt

Errol Spence Jr. has thrown down the gauntlet to WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford in his bid to unify all four title belts in the category, following his victory over Yordenis Ugás on Saturday. Spence extended his unbeaten record to 28-0, in a 10th-round technical KO win over Ugás to successfully defend his WBC and IBF welterweight titles and win the WBA belt. Now, only Crawford’s WBO title for Spence to claim a clean sweep of belts.

The 32-year-old’s win came when referee Laurence Cole stopped the bout 1:44 minutes into the 10th round. Fighting in front of a home crowd at Texas’ AT&T stadium, Spence punished Ugás with wave upon wave of ruthless uppercuts which left the Cuban with a heavily swollen right eye which he was unable to see out of. Ugás did have the American on the ropes in the sixth round, he landed three punches while Spence was dealing with a poorly-fitting mouthpiece. But Spence was up on all three judges’ scorecards when the fight was halted on the advice of the ringside doctor.

Crawford is next

“It was a big event, Dallas really came out, supported me and showed a lot of love. I showed my gratitude and appreciation in the ring. Everyone enjoyed the show and got their money’s worth. It means a lot, man,” Spence said in his post-fight press conference. “When the fight first started, I was being kinda impatient. I don’t think I had my rhythm and my range so I was throwing looping shots, trying to throw hard shots and trying to catch him but in the later rounds when I started placing my shots and not throwing hard I was catching him without breaking him down. I felt that because he wasn’t throwing like he usually does. So I was like, ‘Ok, I got him now’ I just kept punching. Y’know I thought the ref was gonna stop it a lot earlier”.

In response to a congratulatory tweet put out by Crawford, Spence said, “Man, I already said what I wanted to say when I was in the ring. And I’ve been saying it this whole week. It’s strap season, I’ve got one more belt to get. After what I did to Ugás, I’m comin’ for Terence Crawford so, I already know what time it is. We’ll see what we both bring to the table and sort it out like that. He’s got his people, that take care of his business and I’ve got my people, they’ll meet up and it’ll make sense”.