Barrios Shines in Las Vegas Captures Interim Title. Charlo Comes Up Short in Historic Bid

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.

Charlo and Barrios in Action on PPV Card in Las Vegas

Undisputed Junior Middleweight Champion Jermell Charlo of Houston and San Antonio native and former WBA junior welterweight champ Mario Barrios will look to make it a Texas two-step in Las Vegas.

Charlo, 35-1-1 (19), captured the fourth belt at 154-pounds in his last outing, back in May 2022. He rallied and stopped Brian Castano in the 10th round of a thrilling rematch. Charlo set the record straight following their 2021 draw. He will now jump up two weight classes and look to become undisputed in his second weight class, a feat accomplished only once in the history of the four-belt era, Terence Crawford accomplished it two months ago by stopping DeSoto, native Errol Spence. He will face Mexican legend and four-division world champion Canelo Alvarez. Alvarez became undisputed in 2021 by stopping Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders at AT&T Stadium, and Callum Smith. He then attempted to move to 175 and lost a one-sided affair to WBA champ Dmitry Bivol. He went back down to 168 and has outpointed GGG and John Ryder.

On the undercard is San Antonio-based fan favorite "El Azteca" Mario Barrios, 27-2 (18), who will battle former welterweight champ Yordenis Ugas of Cuba. Ugas last fought in April of 2022 and was stopped by Spence. Barrios moved up to 147 in 2022 and was outpointed by Keith Thurman, but bounced back nicely, in his first fight with trainer Bob Santos by stopping rugged contender Jovanie Santiago in February. A crossroads fight for each man, a win gets Barrios one giant step closer to being a two-division world champion. There has only been one two-division champ, that called Alamo City home. Bam Rodriguez accomplished the feat in April when he outpointed Cristian Gonzalez.