LAS VEGAS - Coming up on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, Manny Pacquiao and Yordenis Ugas meet for the latter's WBA (super) welterweight championship. Before they square off for a piece of welterweight gold, Pacquiao and Ugas held their second pre-fight press conference, but the first time they were on the dais together.
The fight is taking place due to Errol Spence Jr. and Fabian Maidana suffering eye injuries. Instead of the card getting scrapped, Ugas moved up to the top of the marquee to face boxing's only eight-division world champion on 11 days notice. Typically, to prepare for a new opponent, you need a significant amount of time to prepare and make the proper adjustments. Not Pacquiao, who says it only took a short amount of time to prepare for the 35-year-old from Cuba.
"When I heard I was going to fight against Ugas, I just (needed) two days," Pacquiao said at the press conference. "I easily adjust because I've been fighting right-handed guys all along. It's not hard for me to defend this. When you're fighting right-handed and switching to southpaw, it's going to be hard because you're not used to it. But this time around, it’s good for me because I'm used to fighting a right-handed (boxer) most of my career. So nothing to worry about."
While Pacquiao was pretty confident in making the necessary changes from Spence to Ugas, the champion kept things close to the vest and didn't reveal what he switched up in preparing for Maidana to the senator from the Phillippines.
"We made adjustments," Ugas said at the presser through an interpreter. "We've had almost two weeks. This is a fight that I didn't ask for, but you know we went ahead, and we made the proper adjustments, and we're ready to go for Saturday night."
Near the end of the presser, you could feel the tension heat up a bit when host Heidi Androl said that Pacquiao head trainer Freddie Roach told her his star pupil knocked out someone in sparring for the first time since he made a permanent move to 147 pounds.
When asked about Roach's comments, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist didn't seem too impressed and assured everyone that won't happen to him come fight night.
"I'm 100 percent certain that he cannot knock me out," Ugas said defiantly. "I've done all the work and all the preparation over these past six years. I've really been hitting my stride, and I don't think Manny Pacquiao can knock me out."