Ugas, a late replacement for WBC and IBF champion Errol Spence after Spence suffered a detached retina, didn't dominate the legend, but he did more than enough to earn the win in this on scores of 115-113 and 116-112 (twice), I agreed with the 115-113 score but that is about as close as I could see the fight possibly being scored.
Ugas used the jab to consistently keep Pacquiao off balance and blunted his trademark ability to hop in and out of the zone to land punches by using the jab.
Ugas landed his right very well against Pacquiao with a right hand that is a hybrid between a looping and overhand to its top effectiveness and Pacquiao seemed to catch it every time that Ugas needed to connect to keep the fight in his favor.
Contrary to many opinions, while I would like to see Manny Pacquiao walk away from the sport now, I'm not sure that he is a completely spent force.
I think fighting only three times in four years and only one in the previous two did not help his skills stay sharpened and Manny at this stage (and he did the same in his win against Keith Thurman) of his career reminds me of Hall of Famer Donald Curry at the end of his career.
Curry became a fighter that could build a lead for seven or eight rounds and the race was then on- could Curry make it to the end of the fight and hold the lead?
Pacquiao has become the same type of fighter and that type of fighter isn't up to the task of defeating the elite of the welterweight division but matched properly Pacquiao can still win some fights against the back of top ten style contenders.
The question is does he want to and does he have to?
The want to portion would depend on his Presidential ambitions in his native Philippines and being able to devote the time needed to get into better shape which seems unlikely at 42.
But the need to? It has been well-known that Pacquiao has dealt with multiple financial issues through the years and one never knows if one of those could pop up again.
While Pacquiao's effort wasn't a stimulating one nor a winning one, it wasn't so terrible that it would eliminate him completely should someone throw enough dollars at him to make it worth his while.
I still don't think that with the nostalgia craze in boxing running well, one could entirely cross out a future Marquez-Pacquiao V or with enough dollars on the line, a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya, or even Floyd Mayweather down the road.
As Ugas, it's pretty clear what his future will be as he most likely will face Spence in a three title unification bout next unless Spence wants a warmup fight in which case Ugas would take one as well.
Ugas still rates below Terence Crawford and Errol Spence in the division but between his win over Pacquiao and split decision loss to Shawn Porter, it's not unfair to list him with Porter and the two rising stars Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz at the level just under the top two.
In the co-feature, faded welterweight veterans Robert Guerrero and Victor Ortiz squared in a good fight but not as strong as I expected it to with Guerrero winning a close unanimous decision on all cards 96-94.
I agreed with the scoring but the downside is that whichever fighter won will likely be pushed above their pay grade by PBC in the future.
I could easily see Guerrero with a recognizable name and a recent win over another recognizable name in Ortiz being the fighter fed to Spence or Ugas should they need an interim fight before their clash.
It won't be competitive but I'm not sure PBC would really want competitive with bigger dollars on the line down the road.
Wait a second, forget I mentioned that.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored one point to move the season total to 118-104.
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