WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter (29-2-1, 17 KOs) weighed in a whooping 148.8 pounds on his first weigh-in attempt for his maiden title defense against Yorgenis Ugas (23-3, 11 KOs) at Friday’s weigh-in for their fight this Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FOX & FOX Deportes at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California.
Porter was able to go back to his dressing room and take off the 1.8 lbs that he was over the limit by, and return to weigh-in successfully at 146 1/2 lbs.
Porter’s opponent, Ugas, 32, weighed in at 146.5 lbs. During the face off, the 5’9″ Ugas towered over the 5’7″ Porter. The size advantage for Ugas looks pretty significant. That in itself probably won’t be enough for Yordenis to get the win, but if Porter is weakened from having dropped the extra weight at the last second tonight, there’s a possibility we could see an upset brewing on Saturday night.
No one knows how good of a talent Ugas is. Although he lost a several fights earlier in his career, he’s been unbeaten in the last five years since 2014. Ugas has an eight fight winning streak going for him since losing to Amir Imam and Emanuel Robles in back to back fights in 2014. Those fights took place at 140, and that weight class was all wrong for the tall 5’9″ Ugas. He looked like a bean pole when he fighting at light welterweight. Since moving up to 147, Ugas has been unbeaten and he’s looked good. However, Ugas hasn’t fought a pressure fighter like Porter during his winning streak, so you can’t say for sure whether he’s going to be able to hold up under fire on Saturday.
This is the first fight for Porter since winning the vacant World Boxing Council 147 lb title last September in beating Danny “Swift” Garcia by a 12 round unanimous decision. Porter says he plans on beating the former Cuban amateur star Ugas on Saturday night, and then he wants the winner of the March 16 fight between IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. and Mikey Garcia.
Porter says he’s going to enter the ring after the Spence-Garcia fight, and challenge the winner to a fight. It worked for Porter before when he entered the ring to challenge Danny Garcia after his knockout win over Brandon Rios, so now he wants to try the same trick by entering the ring after the Spence-Garcia fight. Spence would be willing to fight Porter after Garcia, but only if he can’t arrange a bigger fight against Manny Pacquiao or Keith Thurman. Spence isn’t going to commit to a fight with Porter without knowing if Pacquiao or Thurman will take the fight with him. There’s also the possibility of a rematch with Mikey if their fight is an entertaining one and brings in a lot of PPV buys on Fox Sports.