Arlington, Texas

Ron Harris – Errol Spence, 32, put on a boxing clinic and took home the World Boxing Association belt to go along with his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council belts by completely outclassing Youdenis Ugas for every round but one.  In round 10, referee Laurence Cole stopped the time and took Ugas to see the ringside doctor for the second time in 2 rounds.  This time the doctor decided Ugas could not see out of his right eye and suggested to the referee to halt the fight.  At 1:44 of round 10, Spence (28-0) was awarded the TKO in front of close to 40,000 fans at AT&T stadium in his hometown of Dallas. 

Spence is 1A in the welterweight division with Terrence Crawford and that is the fight everyone wants to see.  Crawford has severed ties to long time promoter Bob Arum so there should not be any obstacles in making that fight.  But this is boxing so one never knows. 

Spence has recovered from a terrible car accident.  Video shows his car flipping over several times.  No bones were broken but his recovery was slow.  Then he needed an eye operation that kept him away from the sport for over a year.  This fight with Ugas was his first time in the ring since the eye surgery. 

Spence is a complete fighter.  He is so economical in his delivery.  He hardly ever throws punches out of control.  His angles are some of the bests of all time.  He displayed every punch in his arsenal against Ugas, who only got this fight because he beat an aging Manny Pacquiao as a replacement for Spence after he suffered the eye injury.  It is hard to remember Spence attacking the body as much as he went at Ugas’ (27-5) body with hard shots.  The punch that hurt Ugas all night was a perfect upper cut that Spence used in every round.  After all the setbacks for Spence, he never doubted himself. “I didn’t have any doubts at all.  Like I said, I believe in myself 100%, I train 100%”, said Spence.  “I didn’t want a tune up fight.  Somebody I knew I could beat.  I wanted some one to bring the best out of me and I knew Ugas would do that.”

Ugas, 35, from Cuba is a dangerous fighter.  But he never seemed to have the distance to connect any hard shots to Spence.  The one shot he got in was in round 6 when Errol had his mouthpiece knocked out and he thought the referee said stop.  Spence turned his head to look for the mouthpiece and Ugas hit him with two hard punches and knocked him back onto the ring.  Spence said, “I thought the ref said stop.  So, I stopped. That was my fault, a rookie mistake.   I know I must protect myself at all times.”

Ugas was grateful in defeat.  “I feel sad because I trained really hard for this fight.  But all respect to Errol Spence.  He is a great champion.  I just feel sad.”

Spence is known as “The Truth” and the truth of the matter is, for the sake of all fans, make the Crawford fight for the end of this year.  “Everyone knows who I want next.  I want Terrence Crawford,” said Spence.  “That’s the fight I want and the fight everyone else wants.”  Crawford holds the World Boxing Organization belt.  The winner of that fight will become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world. 

Photo credit:  Amanda Wescott