‘I’m used to people underestimating me’ — Why Yordenis Ugas is ready to prove people wrong again vs. Errol Spence Jr.

Ismael Salas remembers the first time Yordenis Ugas caught his eye.

Just three weeks after Ugas started training with Salas, he had a sparring session with Gabriel Rosado, one of boxing’s top action fighters. Until that moment six years ago, Salas had never seen Ugas, who was in the midst of an uneventful pro career. Ugas turned the first impression into one of the best sparring sessions Salas had ever seen.

“It was a title match fight instead of a sparring with Rosado,” Salas told ESPN.

Salas immediately knew what he had in Ugas. But for years, the rest of the boxing world didn’t. And even after an upset win that sent future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao into retirement and made Ugas the WBA champion, he is still having to prove to people he’s one of the world’s best welterweights. The 35-year-old Cuban is a considerable underdog this weekend against Errol Spence Jr., one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters and a unified welterweight champion.

Ugas is perfectly happy to be in this position. After all, it’s one that he knows well by now.

“People can say whatever they want to say because I’m used to people underestimating me in my life,” Ugas told ESPN through a translator. “That’s nothing new to me. So I really don’t care if I’m the favorite or I’m the underdog. In the end, it’s up to me to prove that I can be a champion, a winner inside the ring.”

With a win against Spence on Saturday night (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at AT&T Stadium, which is just miles from Spence’s home in the Dallas area, Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) will unify three of the four title belts and play the ultimate spoiler in the 147-pound division.

For years, people considered Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) and Terence “Bud” Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) as the two best welterweights in the world. Talk of a potential fight between the two undefeated fighters — one that still hasn’t happened — has been one of boxing’s biggest storylines. Ugas could upend that entire narrative with one win.

If that happens, it…