WBC orders Yordenis Ugas vs Mario Barrios for interim welterweight title

If you thought the WBC welterweight title picture was confusing now, just wait. Mauricio Sulaiman tells Fight Freaks United that he’s ordered Yordenis Ugas to face Mario Barrios for the interim title.

As Jake Donovan points out, they already have a champion (Errol Spence Jr), a mandatory challenger (Keith Thurman), and a pending eliminator (Cody Crowley vs Abel Ramos), the winner of which will face the winner of this. Beyond being confusing, it also puts an unfavorable spotlight on their rankings; Ugas (27-5, 12 KO) sits at no. 2 despite getting carpet-bombed by Spence last time out and Barrios (27-2, 18 KO) somehow jumped from no. 10 to no. 5 after stopping Jovanie Santiago last month in his first-ever welterweight win.

For comparison, Roiman Vila is five spots behind Barrios.

Standard disclaimer: it’s not a bad fight by its own merits. Ugas is unquestionably the more skilled of the two and by far the more proven, but he’s also in his 40s and took a ton of damage from Spence, which could serve him poorly against an aggressive volume puncher. The circumstances are just dumb.