Former Champ Shawn Porter Sizes Up Spence-Ugas

With the countdown on for Saturday night’s unified welterweight showdown between IBF/WBC champ Errol Spence and WBA titleholder Yordenis Ugas set for AT&T stadium, an interested observer, who previously fought both in recent title fights, gave his insight.

On a Friday special edition of their “Morning Kombat” show live from Arlington, TX, hosts Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell were joined by “Showtime Shawn” Porter for his thoughts on the scheduled 12 round PPV showdown. And, Porter sized up both participants like few analysts can.

When asked by Thomas about the hardest part about fighting each participant (Porter beat Ugas on a split decision and lost to Spence by the same)? The former WBC champion answered,

“With Ugas, you had to ‘tame the lion’…he didn’t buy in to my movement. He didn’t buy in to me wanting to box hi from the outside. And round after round, he’s coming right after me. Telling me ‘come after me. Fight me.'” Porter told the show.

“Then, with Errol it was figuring out what to do with every single second of every round. It was not an easy task. Errol is the kind of guy that’s going to present you something and when you answer that question. He’s going to present you something else.”

Porter defeated Ugas in March of 2019 in Carson, CA to capture the vacant WBC 147 lb. belt. But, he quickly dropped it to Spence in his next bout that September in Los Angeles. It was an equally close bout, which gave the Texan Spence the unified championship he currently holds.

Hear Dan Rafael and me previewing the Spence-Ugas showdown on our latest “Big Fight Weekend Preview” by clicking here:

Of course Spence had a spectacular one car crash, while driving while impaired in Dallas just over two weeks after the Porter win in October 2019. He suffered a concussion and fractured jaw. That and the Covid 19 outbreak worldwide delayed his championship career all the way until December of 2020. That’s when Spence subsequently defeated Danny Garcia in his first unified defense.

Since then, Spence, 27-0, 21 KOs, has now also suffered a detached retina that kept him from fighting legendary Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas last August.

In stepped Ugas in his place and dominated the future Hall of Famer over 12 rounds to become the WBA world champion. And, now, unlike Spence, who’s repeatedly been on the world title stage and won, Ugas, now 27-4, 12 KOs will have to demonstrate that he can validate what he did last Summer.

On the subject of seeming lack of Ugas’ power, Porter said on the show,

“His power goes unrecognized. I think he’s stronger than a lot of people think…. And, with this welterweight division…it really only takes one punch.”

Will that power be able to get Spence’s attention or will the talented southpaw with a huge hometown crowd advantage and power of his own be too much for the Cuban defector?

We will soon find out on all.