Yordenis Ugas is hardly the first opponent of choice in mind for anyone in the welterweight division.
It wasn’t exactly the next fight that Abel Ramos had in mind, though par for the course given his hard road to the top. It’s also an opportunity that he believes is coming at the perfect time given where both fighters are in their respective careers.
“It didn’t take much,” Ramos told BoxingScene.com of the process in accepting the fight. “We just weighed the pros and cons. As soon as they told us it was for a title, we took the fight. Was maybe a couple of days altogether. It’s a great opportunity.”
The two will collide for a secondary version of the WBA welterweight title, atop a special Sunday edition of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox live from Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
A pairing between Casa Grande, Arizona’s Ramos (26-3-2, 20KOs) and Miami’s Ugas (25-4, 12KOs) makes perfect sense given the level of competition both have faced through the years.
All three career defeats for Ramos have come against boxers who went on to capture some version of a major title. Regis Prograis and Ivan Baranchyk were both unbeaten prospects who would win the WBA 140-pound title, while Minneapolis’ Jamal James (27-1, 12KOs) has captured an “Interim” version of the very belt that is at stake on Sunday.
James represents one of four common opponents shared between the 29-year old Ramos and tbe 34-year old Ugas and serves as an interesting footnote in both of their careers. Ramos has won eight straight since an April 2018 loss to James, who 20 months prior took a short notice fight against a comebacking Ugas who won a 10-round unanimous decision in August 2016.
“We have a lot of common opponents, like three or four,” notes Ramos. “He fought James, Levan “The Wolf” (Ghvamichava), Bryant Perrella (and Emanuel Robles). I think he was doing very good at that point when he first came back and was running through a lot of those guys.”
Ramos is 2-1-1 against common opponents, fighting Ghvamichava to a draw while scoring stoppage wins over Robles and Perrella. The latter came in dramatic fashion, with Ramos—well trailing on the scorecards—twice floored Perrella in the 10th and final round, with referee Jack Reiss stopping the fight with just one second to go in the fight.
It positioned Ramos into his first career title fight, while Ugas—who is 3-1 against common opponents (the lone loss coming to Robles in 2014 during his “first career” prior to returning in 2016)—makes his second bid at alphabet glory. A 10-fight win streak for Ugas came to a bitter end in a heartbreaking 12-round decision defeat to then-WBC welterweight titlist Shawn Porter last March.
Since then has come wins over previously unbeaten Omar Figueroa last July and horribly overmatched Mike Dallas Jr. this past February. Neither win impressed Ramos as much as what Ugas was able to accomplish at the start of his comeback tour.
“I think he’s slowed down a little bit,” insists Ramos. “Even against Omar Figueroa, I thought he could have stopped him. Omar wasn’t there to fight, I expected Ugas to take him out.
“But I take nothing away from him. He’s still one of the best welterweights in the world but I believe I am better than him at this point and will show it on Sunday.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
