Will the renaissance man rise again when Yordenis Ugás faces Errol Spence Jr. in Dallas?

If someone had told Yordenis Ugás seven years ago that one day he was going to fight at AT&T Stadium in front of thousands of people to unify titles in the welterweight division, the Cuban warrior would have thought that person was crazy. He would have never believed it.

But if reality surpasses any fiction, Ugás gazes at the vast home of the Dallas Cowboys with a mixture of admiration and self-confidence, because this Saturday it will host the seventh fight in history where two champions will try to add belts with their eyes fixed on an undisputed reign for the first time since the era of the four belts.

“I’m so excited for this fight,” said Ugás at the last press conference. “I respect Spence as an opponent, and this fight will also be a strategic battle between two of the greatest trainers in the world. Spence promises a knockout, I promise a win. Don’t miss it!’‘

It’s not the first time that Ugás sets foot in the AT&T Stadium, because 12 years ago, shortly after coming from Cuba, he was invited on November 13 to see a mega fight between the then-invincible Manny Pacquiao against Mexican Antonio Margarito that brought together more than 41,000 viewers and sold over 1.5 million Pay Per Views.

Ugás left Dallas dazzled by the power exerted by a star like Pacquiao, without imagining that years later, a victory over the Filipino in August 2021 would be the transcendental point of his career and would open the doors to the most important fight in the welterweight division in recent years against the magnificent Errol Spence Jr.

“It’s incredible that I can fight here as the protagonist of the main fight against Spence,” Ugás added. “People know my story by now. I came back in 2016 from being 15-3 after starting my professional career and ever since then, I have established myself as part of the elite in this division. If Spence is the big fish, I belong in that same tank.”

In fact, who doesn’t know Ugás’ history, that fighter who after two consecutive defeats was seen as a disposable product within the cruel boxing machinery, another Cuban who had wasted his enormous talent without fulfilling his promise in professional boxing, after a solid amateur career that led him to win a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

With nothing showing on the horizon, one day Ugás visited the gym of Professor Ismael Salas, a man who has forged 24 world champions, and asked him for an opportunity to prove himself for a second time, despite the fact that he had been absent from the boxing ring for more than two years and nobody remembered him.

Salas, who commands enormous respect at his academy in Las Vegas, smiled when he heard Ugás’ request and at the way in which life put before his eyes a boxer that he considered the best he would be able to mold at that time.

“I told Ugás that it wouldn’t be easy to be reborn, that we had to start from scratch,” Salas recalled. “But I also told him that at that moment he didn’t know it, but that his talent was going to surpass that of all the boxers who were practicing in my gym at that time. Now look how everything has happened and the circumstances in which we find ourselves.”

Once Yordenis Ugás rediscovered the warrior that he was, he never looked back again. In the second half of his career, he has been constantly swimming against tides and forecasts, breaking the many schemes and prejudices about Cuban boxers.

Unfortunately, the story of Ugás has not yet risen to the heights it deserves. A man who rose from nowhere after two costly losses in 2014, when his star seemed to fade completely. How many Cubans have not lost faith after a couple of failures, or even just one?

Thanks to the human and economic help of his best friend, New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman, Ugás stayed two seasons healing his physical and mental wounds, until he rediscovered the warrior he had once been.

With renewed faith and a master as guide, Ugás returned in 2016 knowing that he would be seen as the perfect victim, the stepping-stone to be used by younger boxers, with greater promise and projection. These sequels are usually not good.

Previously, the International Federation had given him the right to face Spence Jr. –although he disdained Ugás in order to fight Mickey Garcia – and then Ugás faced Shawn Porter for the World Boxing Council in a clash where he should have won, but the judges offered a verdict that many questioned and put a bitter look on his face.

When he became world champion on September 6, 2020, in California, against Abel Ramos, he came quite close to being robbed the triumph again, but he won by split decision when in fact it should have been unanimous. However, nothing was as difficult as arranging the fight against Spence.

At some point, the World Boxing Association wanted Ugás to face Lithuanian Eimantas Stanionis in a fight that made absolutely no sense, when everything was ready for the unification of titles, which forced the Cuban to strongly argue for his rights, until he achieved the Association’s green light.

“I’m a warrior. I’m a competitor. I’ve been facing adversity ever since I was a little kid. I started fighting at six years old,” Ugás explained. “This is nothing new to me. It’s going to be a great night for me but at the same time it will also be one more night in which I’ll show my ability.”

And now, at 35 years old, he sees before him, as he saw the AT&T Stadium for the first time, the opportunity to carve his name in the history of world and Cuban boxing if he manages to defeat the favorite Spence. Except for a few occasions, Ugás has always been the B side. He is used to not being taken into account.

Spence has promised a knockout and the predictions go that way, but after an accident that almost cost him his life and an operation on one eye, many wonder if he keeps his skills intact or if Ugás will be able to take advantage of any weakness in his opponent.

“I only pray to face the best Spence, the best version of him,” Ugás remarked. “I promise you blood, sweat and sacrifice fighting for my country and for my people. We’re going to put on a great show. Everyone will see this same Ugás putting his heart and soul into Saturday night.”