PBC on ESPN Results: Ugas and Flores Win Decision Victories
By: William Holmes
The Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona New York was the host site for the night’s PBC on ESPN broadcast. King’s Promotion was the lead promoter for tonight’s card.
The co-main event of the night was between late replacement Jamal James (20-0) and former Cuban amateur standout Yordenis Ugas (15-3) in the welterweight division.
Jamal James took the fight on short notice and replaced undefeated Bryant Perella who had to withdraw due to an injury to his hand.
Ugas, a former Olympic bronze medalist, was surprisingly caught with a lot of jabs and quick combinations to the head in the opening round. However, Ugas stayed consistent with his attacks to the body and looked to work the trunk of his lanky opponent.
By the second round Ugas must have realized that the power of James would not hurt him, as he walked forward more and focused on snapping the energy of James with right hooks to the body. James was matching Ugas punch
for punch in the fourth round, but Ugas’ punches were getting through James guard at a higher clip.
The pace favored Ugas in the middle rounds, and he stayed patient and was crisp with his counter rights and even knocked out the mouthpiece of James in the sixth round. James’ looked like he was tiring in the eighth and ninth rounds and did not have the ability to seriously hurt Ugas, who looked like he was content on winning a decision victory.
Ugas returned from a two year layoff to win the decision victory with scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 96-94.
The main event of the evening was a super featherweight belt between Miguel Flores (20-0) and Ryan Kielczweski (25-1).
Neither boxer was known for their power and both fought out of an orthodox stance.
Kielczweski looked to be bigger and thicker than Flores, but he could not match the speed of Flores. Flores focused his attacks to the body of Kielczweski in the opening two rounds, and besides a right hand from Kielczweski in the opening round on a backward moving Flores, Flores dominated Kielczweski with a high volume of shots to the body.
Kielczweski was able to momentarily trap Flores by the ropes in the opening minute of the third round and land some good shots to the body, but Flores ‘ work rate was just too much for Kielczweski to keep up with.
Flores remained in control in the fourth and fifth rounds and the cumulative effects of his punches were starting to wear down Kielczweski. He remained in the pocket several times and freely threw quick combinations at Kielczweski, but Kielczweski did have his moments in the fifth round.
Kielczweski pressed the pace in the sixth round but Flores was able to deftly stick and move and avoid taking any serious damage. Kielczweski took several more hard combinations in the seventh round but showed he had the chin to take the best shots of Flores.
Kielczweski fought valiantly in the final three rounds, and was able to land some of his power shots, but Flores landed two punches to every one that Kielczweski landed.
Miguel Flores remained undefeated with a decision victory with scores of 97-93, 96-94, and 96-94.