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Yordenis Ugas defeated Manny Pacquiao to hold onto his WBA welterweight belt via unanimous decision (116-112, 116-112, 115-113) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ugas is the current super welterweight champion. Pacquiao, who is the only eight-division world champion in boxing history, is the current WBA champion-in-recess. He became the WBA super welterweight champion when he beat Keith Thurman by split decision in July 2019.
However, the WBA announced that Pacquiao was named the champion-in-recess in Jan. 2021. Per ESPN’s Ben Baby, that occurs “when a champion is unable to defend the belt for medical, legal or other reasons beyond his control.” No further reason was given by the WBA, although at that juncture, the Filipino had not defended his belt in 18 months.
The move made Ugas the super champion, and he and Pacquiao will battle to figure out the WBA’s true welterweight king.
As usual, Pacquiao will be amassing a ton of guaranteed money.
Per BusinessMirror, Pacquiao is expected to earn a $5 million guaranteed purse and could earn up to $25 million depending on how well the pay-per-view sold. The Fox Sports PPV price is $74.99, per Michael Benson of TalkSport.
Ugas’ take is unknown. The California State Athletic Commission (h/t boxing journalist Dan Rafael) stated that the Cuban’s purse for his last fight, a split-decision victory over Abel Ramos in Sept. 2020, was $500,000. That bout was for the vacant WBA regular welterweight title.
The 35-year-old’s purse for a fight against a boxing legend such as Pacquiao figures to land him more than $500,000, although it’s uncertain what the final tally is at this time.
At any rate, Ugas is about to get paid after beating Pacquiao, and he should be in line for a massive take in his next fight with his star clearly on the rise.
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