Before Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman stepped into the ring in Las Vegas, a number of top contenders picked up big wins on the undercard.
In the co-main event of the Pacquiao vs. Thurman main card, Yordenis Ugas got a 12-round decision win against Omar Figueroa Jr. to become the mandatory challenger to the WBC welterweight title. Ugas won the fight with all three judges scoring it 119-107 in his favor.
Ugas started off well by scoring a knockdown in the first round. Although Figueroa never went down to the canvas from a right hand thrown by Ugas, the ropes saved Figueroa from fully going down, prompting the referee to give him a 10-count. From that point onward, Ugas outworked Figueroa, landing numerous big punches and bruising his face throughout the bout.
A brief glimmer of hope for Figueroa to get the upper hand on the scorecards came in the fifth round when Ugas was deducted a point for excessive holding. But it ultimately did not matter as Ugas continued dominating for the rest of the fight.
The current WBC welterweight champion is Shawn Porter, but Porter is currently preparing for a unification bout against IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr. scheduled for late September in Los Angeles. Ugas fought Porter back in March, but Porter retained the title with a controversial split decision in Carson, California.
Before the welterweight title eliminator happened, another welterweight fight took place on the main card. Former junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets picked up a win over Jayar Inson. Early in the second round, Lipinets landed a vicious overhand left that sent Inson to the canvas. Although Inson got back up, the referee decided to stop the fight regardless. Inson came into the fight replacing the injured John Molina Jr., who withdrew from the fight against Lipinets the day before due to a back injury.
Opening the pay-per-view card was a bantamweight bout between former world champions Luis Nery and Juan Carlos Payano. Payano started the fight well outboxing the stronger Nery, who barely got to land much in the first couple of rounds. But as the fight progressed, Nery got more confident throwing punches and in the ninth round, took out Payano with a body shot to improve his record to 30-0 and pick up his 11th straight win inside the distance.
Fightful has live coverage of the entire event in progress and can be seen at this link.