At the Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson in California, Shaun Porter retained the WBC welterweight strap with a razor thin split decision against Yordenis Ugas which was met with a loud jeer from the crowd when it was announced.
“The crowd was expecting a big brawl, but that’s not the way this fight needed to go tonight. That style that we used left the fight close. We got the win, we’re still champion and we’re looking forward to what is next” Porter responded when his impression of the fight was sought after and to rate his performance in this fight.
Porter 31, (30-2-1, 17KO) nearly lost his title at the weighing when he eventually had to cut parts of his hair to make the weight at 147lbs. Porter started the night with good first and second rounds coming at Ugas 32, (23-4, 11KO) with a lot of speed in body shots.
Ugas actually cut the ring into size and control the center of the ring catching Porter on the break winning big rounds in 3 and 4. From this stage, non of the boxers was able to control the fight and it was all quick jabs and body shot from Porter and a very good counter by Ugas as he maintained a steady aggression at Porter.
Both boxers again came in even with Ugas winning round 9 with thunderous hook and a counter right jab in the face and head of Porter.
Porter squared it off with a straight right jab and then a left overhead hook which wobbled Ugas in the 11th round. It is a cracking encounter between the two boxers.
“There’s no doubt about it, I was robbed tonight. After the first round I figured him out and dominated the fight. He had no answer when I was pushing him back. I dominated the fight in my opinion,” Ugas said after losing a controversial split to Porter.
Many thought that the fight could have been a draw to give another opportunity another for the boxers to go at each other again.
Finally the judges scored the card 115-113, 111-117 and 116-112 for Porter whilst Compubox stats had Porter landing 144 punches out of 515 (28%) total punches against Ugas 128 of 449 (29%), 65 out of 230 jabs and 49 out of 226 for Porter and Ugas respectively.