The September 18th date was put off, but now it seems as November 6th is on the horizon.
Alvarez and Plant will meet inside the ring on November 6 in Las Vegas with the undisputed super-middleweight championship at stake, according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger.
On Wednesday, August 18th, Manny Pacquiao and WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas met for their final press conference before their scheduled championship bout this Saturday night on FOX Sports PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
During the press conference Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KO's) spoke of possible retirement after this fight based on how things go during the fight with the talented WBA welterweight champion Ugas (26-4, 12 KO's).
On the other hand, if Pacquiao wins Saturday night it will be hard to overlook a return to challenge Errol Spence Jr. for his WBC and IBF titles after recovering from his eye injury.
Yordenis Ugas has been on the big stage before, but this time when he faces Pacquiao it will be the biggest of the big. Ugas gained his opportunity with the win he had against Abel Ramos for the vacant WBA 147 lb title. Coming into this challenging match-up against Pacquiao, Ugas has faced only one fighter in the past two years that has been on the mega platform of world title fights and that's Shawn Porter. In that contest Ugas put on a great performance but came up short by losing by split decision.
Here's what Manny Pacquiao and Yordenis Ugas had to say:
Manny Pacquiao:
“It’s a good thing we can settle it down about the WBA belt,” said Pacquiao at the final press conference on Wednesday. “It’ll be a good thing that we can settle it down on Saturday. It’s going to be a good fight.”
“It’s not good for them [WBA] to strip my belt without fighting me, without challenging me. So let’s see if he will get the belt on Saturday,” said Pacquiao. “Both of us are a champion,” Manny said when asked if he views Ugas as the WBA champion.
“When I heard that I got the fight with Ugas, two days I easily adjust because I’d been fighting right-handed guys. It’s not hard to adjust unless you’re going the other way around and you’re fighting a right hand, and then it’s switched to southpaw.
“That’s going to be hard because you’re not used to fighting a southpaw. This time around, it’s going to be good for me because I’m used to fighting right-handed most of my career.
“Nothing to worry about. It happened in training. Sometimes it happens in training,” Pacquiao said about him knocking out one of his sparring partners.
“Because I feel young,” said Pacquiao when asked why he brought back his old style of training that he hasn’t done for many years.
“Sorry, I’m 24,” Pacquiao said in reacting to being reminded that he’s 42. “I’m just happy doing this. Boxing is my passion.
“I’m enjoying doing training camp and sacrificing, undergoing sacrifice and discipline, especially to prepare for a fight like this. I’m always happy.
“I think for the Thurman fight, my everybody training, I did 25 rounds to 28 rounds a day, but this time, I did 30 rounds, 32 rounds, sometimes 31 rounds.
“Sometimes, the coaching staff tries to stop me because I want to do more. They told me I might get overtrained. That’s what they say to me every day,”
“I want to invite all the fans to watch this fight. It might be my last fight, or there’s more.
“One at a time, that is my answer to those who ask if it’s my last fight,”
“You never know. You have to watch this fight; it’s going to be good action in the ring. You will be happy. I will do my best because I love to do that, to make the fans happy,”
Yordenis Ugas:
“I want to send well wishes to Errol Spence. I want to wish him all the best and a speedy recovery,” said Ugas. “This has been a long road for me. Obviously, it’s short notice fight. I’m thankful and very honored for this opportunity, and I’m ready.”
“Look, we’ve made adjustments, we’ve had two weeks. This is a fight that I didn’t ask for, and we went ahead and made the proper adjustments, and we’re ready to go for Saturday night,”
“There are no excuses. I’ve been in this position before, but never in a position like this against a legend like Manny Pacquiao. But I’m certainly ready for Manny Pacquiao, and I know that he’s ready,”
“I am 100% certain he cannot knock me out,” said Yordenis. “I’ve done all the work and all the preparation. Over the past six years, I’ve really been hitting my stride, and I don’t think Manny Pacquiao can knock me out,”
“Look, I’m come to prepare for 12 hard rounds. If this is the final fight that the legend Manny Pacquiao has, that he fought against a guy who brought his best and is a world-class fighter,”
“I want to thank PBC, I want to thank Manny Pacquiao, and more than anything, I represent my country,”
Pacquiao vs. Ugas
Date: Aug. 21
Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Start time: 9 p.m. ET
How to watch: FOX PPV
Tomorrow night, August 14th from the Cosmopolitan Lounge in Decatur, GA, Baltimore, MD middleweight Lorenzo "Truck" Simpson(9-0, 5 KO's) is scheduled to take on veteran Manny "Shake 'Em Up" Woods of Saint Petersburg, FL. as the main-event in a eight-round contest.
Casimero and Rigondeaux are set for their 12-round main event that will be on the Showtime telecast from the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
John Riel Casimero came in at 118 lbs. while Guillermo Rigondeaux stepped on the scale at 117½ lbs.
In the co-feature, Gary Antonio Russell (18-0, 12 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, officially weighed 116¾ while Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-2, 12 KOs) came in at 118 lbs for WBA bantamweight interim title contest.
For the opener of Showtime’s three-bout broadcast, set to begin at 10 p.m. EDT and 7 p.m. PDT, Rau’shee Warren (18-3, 4 KOs, 1 NC), a former IBO/WBA bantamweight champ from Cincinnati, stepped on the scale at 117½ lbs. in preparation for his 10-round bout against Damien Vazquez (15-2-1, 8 KOs). Las Vegas’ Vazquez weighed 117¼ lbs.
The WBA has announced that Gabriel Maestre (4-0, 3 KOs) has been stripped of the interim world welterweight title he won with much controversy on Saturday, August 7th. The Venezuelan was gifted with a outrageous unanimous decision over Mykal Fox (22-3, 5 KOs) in Minneapolis.
The flip-flopped scorecard from judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo, who wrote down the score 117-110 in Maestre's favor, was suspended indefinitely. Her suspension was originally six months, but the racist content found on Rizzo's social profiles warranted a longer suspension for the judge.
The confirmation for a rematch from the WBA give the promoters from both sides 30 days to negotiate an agreement.
On Saturday night, August 7th at The Armory in Minneapolis, three judges had a great opportunity to build recognition by being part of the nationally televised Gabriel Maestre vs. Mykal Fox WBA interim welterweight title bout.
Judge Mariano scored it 115-112, David Singh 114-113, while Martinez-Rizzo had it, incredibly, 117-110, all for Maestre. This definitely wasn't the outcome the live crowd, television commentators and television audiences was expecting to hear. Fox clearly had a look of unbelief in his facial expression.
Alantez Fox, brother of Mykal Fox:
"When the first score was read Mykes face twisted up immediately but I assured him that was him. The second was close too but I told him don't worry about that bro. That's you. When they read the final score, I reassured him that no one saw Maestre winning by a margin like that. When they said and still undefeated I immediately knew something was wrong. I immediately started fuming at the end when they put the camera on me I made sure it was seen that I said "This is some bullshit!!"
BoxingScene.com columnist Corey Erdman went through a series of past tweets that Martinez-Rizzo posted on the website through her personal account, many of which ranged from being racially insensitive to straight out racist. There were posts about two widely known African Americans in which she referred to Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, “monkey face,” and another telling basketball star Lebron James “go to back to the stable.”. There are many more questionable posts that Martinez-Rizzo has on her social media outlet.
That's just getting things started win it comes down to the questionable scorecard. Now it comes down to conflicts of interest. Gloria Martinez-Rizzo is the wife of Ricardo Rizzo, who works frequently with the WBA. The WBA granted Martinez-Rizzo its “Judge of the Year” award in 2019. More insightful information came out revealing that a member of Maestre’s corner, Marcelino Castillo, has ties with the WBA.
