Manny Pacquiao could struggle and possibly lose to Yordenis Ugas if he’s not fully 100% motivated for their fight this Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
(Photo Credit: Sean Michael Ham/TGB Promotions)
For the last couple of months, Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) had been training to take on the unbeaten IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr in a fight that had the entire boxing world talking.
Last week, Pacquiao got some bad news with Spence Jr. (27-0, 21 KOs) suffering a torn left retina in training. Spence’s injury was bad enough to pull out of the fight and have his eye surgically repaired.
With Spence out, Pacquiao has to find the same motivation to challenge WBA welterweight champion Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs), even though he’s not well known to the general boxing public and is nowhere near as popular as Spence.
Ugas has more than enough talent to beat Pacquiao if he comes into the fight at only 70%.
For fans that don’t know, Ugas got the better of Shawn Porter in a fight in 2019 but came up empty, losing a controversial 12 round split decision.
Ugas did a better job against Porter than Spence did, even though he didn’t win.
There was no struggling for Ugas against Porter. The Cuban fighter was in control every step of the way, but unfortunately, two judges gave the win to Porter. If Ugas fights like that, Pacquiao will have trouble, whether he’s properly motivated or not.
Is Pacquiao motivated for Ugas?
“On Saturday, Manny Pacquiao will end a two-year layoff when he takes on Yordenis Ugas. This was a last-minute change after Errol Spence Jr. had to back out because of an eye injury,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN Jabs.
“Ugas is a world champion, but to many, he’s something of an unknown. What chance do you give him in this fight?”
“Well, if Manny Pacquiao were training for Ugas from the get-go, I wouldn’t give him much of a chance, but because he wasn’t training for Ugas and he’s a replacement, even though he has a couple of weeks to adjust, that’s not going to be enough time to adjust to hunger,” said Sergio Mora.
“It’s going to be a timing thing. He [Pacquiao] wasn’t preparing for Yordenis Ugas. He was preparing for Errol Spence, a beat, The Truth. That’s not happening now.
“So he [Pacquiao] has to gauge down the hunger and the motivation that he had for fighting Spence to now fighting.
“He’s [Ugas] a good fighter, someone that’s been to the top level, but he’s not pound-for-pound level.
“So he’s going to have to recalibrate that hunger that was lost, and that’s always dangerous,” said Mora about Pacquiao in what he needs to do.
Pacquiao probably won’t admit it, but he’s likely nowhere near as motivated for the Ugas fight as he was when he was fighting Spence.
Without that motivation, Pacquiao could wind up getting knocked out or beaten by a decision.
The chances of Pacquiao losing a decision are quite low, though, because, with his popularity, it’s hard to imagine the judges scoring it for Ugas.
It’s going to make Pacquiao look bad if he wins a controversial decision over Ugas.
Manny needs to be at the top of his game
“The Pacquiao that beat Keith Thurman from two years ago would beat any version of Ugas,” said Mannix. “I don’t care if he [Pacquiao] took him on a day before.
“The question that I have is what version of Manny Pacquiao are we going to get?
“Are we going to get the guy that beat Thurman, the guy that was still at the top of his game when he was forced out a couple of years ago because of inactivity issues, or has Father Time caught up with him?
“Pacquiao is a remarkable example of a fighter beating back Father Time. Bernard Hopkins may be the greatest example of it, but Bernard Hopkins, by and large, was not in a lot of wars in the ring. Pacquiao, from very early in his career, was in war after war after war.
“So I’m waiting to see if all those wars take something out of Pacquiao, but I’ll say this. If we get anything close to the fighter that beat Keith Thurman, Ugas has no chance,” Mannix said.
“Well, we’re going to find out, but like I said, this is going to be Pacquiao having to adjust to the hunger that he lost and the motivation of having to fight a dangerous fighter in Errol Spence to fighting a guy [Ugas] that’s already been beaten.
“He should have beat Shawn Porter, but he’s already lost to fighters that aren’t at that level.
“The hunger is not there for Pacquiao, but Pacquiao is a living legend, and he can do stuff that we can’t comprehend,” said Mora.
Pacquiao’s two years out of the ring is going to make it tough for him to be anywhere near what he was when he fought Thurman in 2019.
