No, Manny Pacquiao Did Not Win the Weekend

It was another offering from “Theater of the Unexpected Productions” this weekend. We saw The Fighting Senator Manny Pacquiao unable to use his enormous reservoir of willpower to propel him past a Cuban cutie who showed people that hadn’t closely followed his career that Yordenis Ugas is better than his resume indicates, and no mere “cutie.”

Afterwards, Pac-Man spoke of tight calves being a massive hindrance, rather than citing being 42, so we do wonder if he’s in a mindset that will allow him to submit to the inevitable, that all good things shall pass, and 42 isn’t the new 32.

So, for me, my vote for Who Won the Weekend goes to Mrs. Yordenis Ugas. Because boxing is more of a team sport than people realize, and it’s pretty clear that Mr and Mrs Ugas are a tight squad.

Loved ones, spouses, parents don’t get the spotlight all that much, we tend to drape the glory on the obvious targets, but this time, I’m going to be like Bernie, Sanders that is, and spread the wealth: congrats Mrs. Ugas!

What about the rest of the NYF Squad? How do you see it, Abe Gonzalez?

“The Vegas Strip won the weekend,” Abe told me. “Every single casino was packed, traffic was hell and two significant events from different worlds were occurring only a handful of miles away from each other. Aside from the Manny Pacquiao vs Yordenis Ugas fight, WWE ran their second biggest event of the year, Summer Slam. With 50k plus at Allegiant Stadium and 17k at the T-Mobile Arena, the Strip was loving the activity and money that both events produced for their own shows and the strip. Even though Summer Slam was a big event, the rumor was that they needed to wrap up their show prior to the Manny Pacquiao ring walk. If that’s not star power, then I don’t know what is. As the old saying goes “the house always wins” and this weekend was no different in Las Vegas!”

“Cuban Boxing won the weekend,” is the opinion of Gayle “The G” Falkenthal. “After the talented but troubling Guillermo Rigondeaux stunk out the War Grounds last weekend, Yordenis Ugas roared in to save the Cuban style's reputation. Ugas offers the 21st Century model of the traditional defense first, jab-forward look backed by hard counterpunching. Pro Cuban boxers don't have to be boring, and Ugas gave fans a thrilling performance without having to brawl. Admittedly it's for the purists, but NYFights.com is where the purists play, verdad? Manny Pacquiao made it competitive, but without the footwork to fuel his offense, he was dead in the pugilistic water. No shame in his game and even in the loss it's good to send the Fighting Senator out with a challenge. #RespectBox”

“Man! I initially had Mark Magsayo with an impressive showing of resilience and will to get a tremendous KO in a grueling fight,” said Jacob Rodriguez. “However, Yordenis Ugas stole the weekend with an impressive win. It wasn’t so much the win as it was capitalizing on the chance of a lifetime fight against a legend. That fight had it all, drama, great boxing, an outcome most didn’t expect, and possibly the last fight of a boxing legend. Ugas embodied the saying “carpe diem”!

“Taking nothing away from Ugas, Manny Pacquiao won the weekend,” voted David Phillips. “For over a quarter of a century, he fought anyone and everyone, did things a small man was never supposed to do, for about ten of those years Manny was the most exciting draw in the sport, and behaved like a decent human being throughout. If this was his last fight (and while that’s totally up to him, I hope it was), he walks away owing his sport and us fans absolutely nothing. Hell, it almost feels cheap to say he “won the weekend.” Lord knows, he won so much more than that.”

“I will not argue with anyone who says Yordenis Ugas. It was clearly his weekend,” said Matt Andrzejewski. “But let me go a bit off the board here and say the winner of weekend was Ricky Sismundo. Sismundo is a veteran 140 pound journeyman who was on a four fight losing streak coming into his fight on Friday in Dubai against undefeated Faizan Anwar. Sismundo is known for giving quality efforts and usually can bring out the best in up n coming prospects. Simply put, the script writers had him losing here to Anwar and in doing so boosting Anwar's profile.

“Sismundo, though, beat Anwar pillar to post. It was a complete and thorough beat-down of Anwar. Sismundo appeared to earn what was easily the best win of his career. But guess what? The judges gave it to Anwar. It was maybe the worst decision I have ever seen in the sport. Yes, that includes the recent Mykal Fox Massacre, which saw WBA favored son Gabriel Maestre receive a gifted win in Minnesota. What was really suspicious here is the ring announcer did not even read the scorecards. He just announced Anwar as the “winner.” The final two contests also went to the scorecards and those scores were announced in full.

“Sismundo may not have gotten the official nod but he decisively won this fight. It was a career best performance. He won the weekend in my opinion with his dominant performance against an undefeated prospect in the ring.

“By the way can we please see those official scores?”

What do you say, Peter Carvill? “Ugas. Ugas. Ugas. Yes, Pac is old, but let’s not take away from that fact that Ugas also took on that fight at short notice and with no one giving him much of a hope. And not only did he do that but he won a decision that NO ONE seems to find controversial. Hopefully, this will get him a couple of decent paydays in the his next few outings.”