Spence adds 3rd title belt with TKO over WBA champ Ugás

ARLINGTON, Texas

Errol Spence Jr. took a few rounds to find his rhythm and range after a long layoff. In the end, he had another championship belt.

Spence became a three-belt welterweight champion by defending his WBC and IBF titles in a unification bout in front of a home crowd, when his fight against Yordenis Ugás was stopped in the 10th round April 16 night because of the WBA champ’s right eye that was almost completely swollen shut.

“I think when the fight first started, I was kind of impatient,” Spence said. “Later rounds, when I started setting my shots up, and placing my shots and picking my shots, and not throwing it hard, but letting them go, I was catching him a lot and working him down. I felt him breaking down, because he wasn’t throwing like he usual does.”

The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds, but 1:44 into the 10th, referee Laurence Cole sent Ugás to a corner to have his eye checked out by a ringside doctor for the second time. Unlike two rounds earlier, when the fight was allowed to continue, it was stopped this time despite protests by Ugás.

Spence, fighting for the first time in more than 16 months, improved to 28-0. His 22nd knockout marked the first time in his last four fights the 32-year-old southpaw didn’t have to go the distance.

Ugás, the 35-year-old Cuban who dropped to 27-5, left the stadium in an ambulance and was being taken to a local hospital.

“I kept punching, and I thought the ref was going to stop it a lot earlier,” Spence said.