Cuban welterweight contender Yordenis Ugas did about as expected tonight in Biloxi, Mississippi, dominating veteran Mike Dallas Jr in the main event, scoring a stoppage after seven rounds of largely one-sided action.
Dallas (23-4-2, 11 KO) hadn’t been seen by many boxing fans for the last seven years, following a first round knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse in Jan. 2013 on HBO. Once a prospect, Dallas was sort of found out back in 2011 when he dropped a pair of fights to Josesito Lopez and Mauricio Herrera. He’d gone 4-0-1 in his last five fights, but the wins were all over opponents with losing records in six-round club bouts, three of them in Tijuana.
That meant pretty much everyone expected Dallas to be outclassed by Ugas (25-4, 11 KO), who has been hot in the welterweight division the last few years after his own setbacks earlier in his career. Ugas arguably should have won the WBC title from Shawn Porter 11 months ago, but came away with a split decision loss, which really just firmly established him as a serious welterweight contender.
He showed the difference tonight, outworking, outlanding, outhustling, and more or less just having his way in the ring. Dallas had little flashes here and there where you could remember he’s not an unskilled goof or anything like that, but after the seventh round, where Dallas probably did his best work of the fight, he was stopped in the corner. It seemed perhaps he and his team both knew that they’d just given it their best shot, not dented Ugas (or won the round, even), and that it wasn’t worth continuing.
Hopefully the 33-year-old Ugas gets a less terrible matchup for his next outing, but it seems unlikely he’ll get a title fight. PBC do have welterweights beyond Spence, Pacquiao, Porter, Thurman, and Danny Garcia for him to fight, but he’s also a guy I don’t think anyone is dying to get in the ring with. He’s skilled, he’s not a big star, and his record isn’t pretty. You’re not taking an “0” if you beat him, and he’s not easy to beat.
Michel Rivera TKO-10 Fidel Maldonado Jr A really good win for the 21-year-old lightweight Rivera (18-0, 12 KO), a Dominican fighter found by Sampson Lewkowicz, who has quite a track record. Maldonado (27-5-1, 20 KO) can be awkward as a southpaw veteran, can be fun to watch sometimes, but he was outclassed here by the younger man.
Rivera was just sharp and confident throughout the 10 rounds here. He may have hurt the 28-year-old Maldonado a bit in the ninth round, and then dropped the Albuquerque native in the 10th. Maldonado got up, but Rivera finished things with a final flurry, forcing the ref to step in with about half of the final round remaining.
Rivera’s certainly someone to watch. His win last year over Rene Tellez Giron didn’t seem huge at the time, but looks even better now with Tellez Giron going on to smash Karlos Balderas. This is a young fighter with skills, power enough to close the show, and a very calm, cool demeanor in the ring. There’s a lot to like here. 135 is a division with some terrific talent, so breaking through won’t be easy, but
Clay Collard TKO-2 Raymond Guajardo Guajardo came in here the prospect, this was meant to be a showcase. A 19-year-old middleweight from San Antonio, Guajardo had dominated to date in his pro career. But the 26-year-old Collard — an MMA veteran who had four fights in UFC in 2014-15, but in boxing a club fighter out of Utah who said coming in that this was his last boxing fight (he planned to switch his focus back to MMA) — came out to war, and so did the kid.
And we got a war. Collard (6-2-3, 2 KO) was tagging Guajardo (5-1, 4 KO) quickly, and eating shots himself. Guajardo went down twice in the first round, but he did come back to put Collard down in the same round. Then Collard hurt Guajardo again late in the round, setting up the second, where Guajardo’s nose was busted and he got battered enough by Collard that referee Keith Hughes just had no choice but to step in and end it for the upset.
