San Antonio native "El Azteca" Mario Barrios put on a career-best performance in Las Vegas on the undercard of Canelo vs. Jermell Charlo.
Barrios, a former 140-pound world champion, walked into the ring a 3-1 underdog against former welterweight champion and Cuban native Yordenis Ugas. It was the second fight for Barrios with trainer Bob Santos, and it was his second highly-impressive performance.
Barrios showed patience and a more disciplined jab after shaking off a nice body shot Barrios, stayed the course, and that jab scored in the second round and put Ugas down. The 37-year-old Ugas fought back valiantly and scored a right hand that hurt Barrios in the 3rd and landed another big right that affected the Texan. Ugas followed up with a flurry. The fighter seemed even through the midway point. It seemed the fight was up for grabs going into the second half of the fight. El Azteca certainly seized control and dominated the second half of the fight. A right uppercut in the 8th stunned Ugas. Barrios couldn't miss with the right hand as Ugas's eye began swelling. The ringside physician was called in by the referee, who appeared like he wanted to stop the fight, in each of the last three rounds. A fight that likely should have been stopped, by someone continued into the 12th and final round. The Texan scored another knockdown with a picture-perfect left hook in the 12th. Ugas fired back and had some moments with the right hand. However, Barrios continued to get the best of scoring with some right hands of his own. Ugas was deducted a point for spitting his mouthpiece out. Barrios rolled to a wide unanimous points victory by scores of 117-108 and 118-107x2. The Texan, who picks up the WBC Interim title, which will eventually make him the mandatory for the WBC champion, which is currently Jermell Charlo, out-landed the Cuban 193 of 810 to Ugas's 86 of 277. The Alamo City native improved his record to 28-2 (18).
In the main event, Houston native Jermell Charlo came up well short in his bid to become a two-division undisputed champion and dropped a lopsided decision to Canelo Alvarez 118-109X2 and 119-108.