Yordenis Ugás Hernández is a Cuban professional boxer, born on July 14th, 1986, who has held the WBA (Super) welterweight title since January 2021, having previously held the WBA (Regular) title from 2020 until being elevated to Super champion.
As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships and bronze at the 2008 Olympics, both in the lightweight division.
As of October 2021, he was taken as the world’s third-best active welterweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, The Ring magazine, and BoxRec.
He is also the tenth-best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec.
Ugas’ nickname, 54 Milagros, comes from two people: “54” refers to baseball player Aroldis Chapman who wears the number 54, and Ugas’ best friend; “Milagros” is the name of Ugas’ mother.
Boxing Profile – Yordenis Ugás – Profesional Career Highlights:
Ugás vs. Porter
On 9 March 2019, Ugás fought his first career title fight against Shawn Porter for the WBC welterweight title.
Ugás fought great and landed the cleaner shots throughout the fight.
Porter had some success with his jab in the fourth round, but Ugás was the better man in the following round after both fighters exchanged shots in the middle of the ring towards the end of the fifth.
Ugás also had a stronger finish to the fight and managed to cut Porter near his left eye in the tenth.
After the final bell rang, Ugás’ team already started celebrating, while Porter just stood and looked at his corner.
To many of the fans’ surprise, two of the judges scored the fight in favor of Porter, 116-112 and 115–113, while only one of the judges scored the fight in favor of Ugás, 117–111.
The crowd was booing what seemed to many as a controversial split decision win for Porter.
Ugas vs. Figueroa
In his next fight, Ugás dominated former world champion, Omar Figueroa, to a unanimous decision win, winning every round in the process.
All three judges scored the fight 119-107 for the Cuban, who only had one point deducted for holding in the fifth round.
Ugas vs. Dallas Jr.
In his following fight, Ugás fought Mike Dallas Jr. Ugás boxed well and managed to hurt Dallas Jr on multiple occasions.
After the seventh round, Dallas Jr’s corner had seen enough and informed the referee he would not be continuing the fight.
WBA welterweight champion
Ugás vs. Ramos
On 6 September 2020, Ugás fought Abel Ramos for the vacant WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
Ugás outboxed Ramos, dominating most of the rounds throughout the fight.
This earned Ugás a split decision victory, with one judge scoring the fight 117-111 for Ramos, while the other two had it narrowly for Ugás, both scoring it 115–113.
Ugás vs. Pacquiao
On January 29, 2021, Ugás was elevated to the status of WBA (Super) champion after the previous title-holder, eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao, was stripped of his title due to inactivity.
The latter had been scheduled to face undefeated WBC and IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. on 21 August 2021 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, until Spence had to withdraw due to suffering an injury to his left eye. Subsequently, Ugás took Spence’s place and made the first defense of his WBA (Super) title against Pacquiao.
The bout was a competitive affair, with Ugás using his jab and looping right hand effectively to control the distance.
While Pacquiao had moments of success throughout the night, he never truly settled into a rhythm and was noticeably stiffer than usual.
Pacquiao himself admitted after the fight that his legs were “tight”.
At the final bell, Ugás got a unanimous decision victory with scores of 116–112, 116-112, and 115–113.
According to CompuBox, Pacquiao threw over double the number of punches compared to Ugás, but landed fewer, making the latter the far more accurate boxer on the night.
Pacquiao landed 130 punches of 815 thrown (16%), while Ugás landed 151 punches of 405 thrown (37.3%).