Vergil Ortíz, Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugás Hernández

Come on, WBA! You promised to clean up your mess and consolidate your title bloat, right? What better way to start than ordering a unification of the Super and Gold world championship at 147lb.

 

...wait, is Vergil still holding the Gold title? He is still listed as such on BoxRec, fightnews, and the WBA rankings but - it has been over a year (13 months, actually) since he defended it although he's fought twice since then ...paying the WBO sanctioning fees instead for their lesser international title. So he's neither been stripped nor officially declared that he's vacating it?

 

Key factors:

• Ortíz's reach. An inch greater than Ugás' (Pacquiao's was two less)
• Ortíz's youthful explosiveness (something Pacquiao retained well into his thirties, but which has now mostly abandoned him)
• Ugás' good timing and precision counters.
• Ugás' defense and toughness.

I think Ortíz gets him out, mid to late, and ironically I think he might have to get off the canvas to do so even though his chin isn't of great concern to me (being dropped by Kava is no great red flag) and Ugás isn't a big hitter. I just think, occupational hazard, when you're the seek and destroy fighter going up against somebody laying back and picking you off with textbook counters, unless the matador is a complete and utter feather-fist there is the chance of a quick bloop/knee touching down, whatever. I don't think Ugás can seriously hurt Ortíz, however, and definitely cannot maintain his respect enough to buy himself any breathing room...and I don't think he can evade the fresh legs of a primed out non-42-year-old for a full 12. I'm not sure we have seen Ugás down except against Ramos, but it doesn't matter. Ortíz has that game changing power, and you need to either have a legendary iron chin or be truly untouchable when you want to be - and neither applies in the case of the Cuban (even a very ineffective version of Pac caught him at least a couple of times a round).

 

Forgot? He fought last weekend.