Mares Proves to be Elite

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA — In the biggest fight of his career, Abner Mares fought the best fight of his career and perhaps validated some of his prior accomplishments with a comprehensive twelve-round unanimous decision in his rematch with former champion Joseph Agbeko at the Honda Center on Saturday night.

Mares (23-0-1, 13 KOs) of Hawaiian Gardens, California fought a smart fight and proved to have more dimensions than did Agbeko (28-4, 22 KOs) of Bronx, New York by way of Accra, Ghana.

Mares opened up in the second and got the crowd into the fight, as he forced Agbeko, the WBC #4/IBF #3/WBO #12 ranked bantamweight, to the ropes and landed well to the body. Despite holding a clear edge in the round, one Agbeko left appeared to be responsible for a small cut near Mares’ right eye. The small cut eventually became a big cut as the fight would progress, but Mares appeared to keep it out of his mind.

While Mares was balanced in his attack, Agbeko turned into a headhunter in the early going much to his detriment. More often than not, when Agbeko broke through and landed clean, such as he did with his left in the sixth, it only inspired Mares to turn up his offense. Closing the round, Mares landed the better shot in an exchange and follow with a solid right and a left hook shortly after.

Throughout the fight, Mares would continue to throw when most fighters would be satisfied holding on. With Agbeko leaning over or holding on, Mares would hit anything he could until referee Lou Moret would call a break or Agbeko would do something about it himself.

If there was a hope for Agbeko as the fight moved into its final third, it was Mares’ badly swollen and cut right eye. “King Kong” would catch Mares in the spot he needed to with one or two, but Mares defended it enough that it did not endanger his stronghold in the bout.

Rounds eleven and twelve featured some frantic action. Agbeko caught Mares with a clean right uppercut as the champion moved inside early in the eleventh. Mares seemed invigorated by the shot, and got the best of a two-way exchange, as he landed clean head shots to close out the round. Mares came out strong in the twelfth, and disappointingly Agbeko seemed to have no sense of urgency. Both fighters took the fight home in the final seconds, as they exchanged until the final bell.

All three judges scored the bout for Mares, 118-110, who retained his IBF and WBC Silver Bantamweight titles. “I’m happy my fans finally saw my true boxing skills,” said Mares after the fight. Due to the controversial rulings of referee Russell Mora in their first fight, Mares clearly had a desire to leave no bout who the better fighter was. “I proved I beat him the first time and I beat him again,” said Mares.

In the co-feature, Anselmo Moreno (32-1-1, 11 KOs) of Panama City, Panama retained his WBA Bantamweight title with a wide unanimous twelve-round decision over Vic Darchinyan (37-4-1, 27 KOs) of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia by way of Vanadzor, Armenia.

Moreno, 118, had some trouble getting off in the early going as he figured out the awkward style of Darchinyan, 117 ¾, but the Panamanian eventually settled into combination of boxing on the outside while holding his own on the inside.

Moreno opened the second with a straight left, but Darchinyan, the WBA #1/WBO #4 ranked bantamweight, came right back and forced Moreno into a corner. Moreno wisely moved out and returned to center ring. By the third, Darchinyan was clearly getting frustrated that he could not find Moreno with any consistency, as was evidenced when the challenger received a warning for hitting Moreno behind the head at the end of the round.

Darchinyan’s frustration boiled over again at the end of the next round, as he was deducted a point for throwing Moreno to the canvas. The champion had been holding Darchinyan’s right arm excessively before the throw.

Darchinyan appeared to be hoping to land one big shot that would change the fight, but it had to be disheartening that when he landed clean Moreno took his punch well. More importantly, Moreno knew how not to get caught by more than one in row. Midway through the fight, Darchinyan utilized an unorthodox technique of running into range and then firing his left. For the most part, the hard lefts flew over Moreno’s head.

After a couple of close rounds, Moreno landed in combination to start the eighth. With Darchinyan in a brief moment of retreat, Moreno hurt the challenger with two body shots. Darchinyan stemmed some of Moreno’s momentum late in the round, lastly landing a stiff left at the end of the round.

Moreno landed another solid combination in round nine that seemed to briefly stagger Darchinyan. To his credit, the former champion fought back may have deserved the round. The action was tense in rounds ten and eleven, as Darchinyan managed to keep Moreno off balance, but failed to land anything that could change the direction of the fight.

Moreno opted to box at range to open the twelfth as if he was protecting a big lead, which actually created an opening for Darchinyan. Midway through the round, Moreno went down from what looked like a punch from ringside, but was waved off as a slip by referee Raul Caiz Jr. Moreno was slow to get up from the fall, and was more stationary in the moments after returning to his feet. Still Darchinyan failed to land one of his wild lefts and Moreno moved around the ring to close the fight.

“I was going for big punches, but couldn’t find a home for my left,” admitted Darchinyan, after the bout. With the win, Moreno, who took the cards by the scores of 120-107, 117-110 and 116-111, successfully introduced himself to the U.S. television audience and added a recognizable name to his three-and-a-half year resume as a belt holder.

Eyeing the winner of one of tonight’s featured bouts, former titleholder Eric Morel (45-2, 23 KOs) of Madison, Wisconsin by way of San Juan, Puerto Rico did little to get any of the Showtime brass seated ringside excited about that prospect with a lackluster ten-round decision over Jose Silveira (12-5, 4 KOs) of Merida, Yucatán, Mexico.

After boxing and counter-punching his way through much of the first four rounds, Morel, 119 ½, opened up late in the fourth and through much of the fifth. Silveira, 119 ¾, held up well to Morel’s punches and offered back to little success. By the seventh, Morel went back to his jab-and-move style, much to the displeasure of the crowd. Though Silveira was game, he failed to force Morel to fight a fight that the Puerto Rican could lose. Two judges had it 98-92, while the third scored it 97-93 all for Morel.

Currently ranked WBA #6/WBC #9 at bantamweight and promoted by Golden Boy Promotions (the promoter of both Abner Mares and Anselmo Moreno), Morel has hopes his next fight is for a world title.

Former amateur star Frankie Gomez (12-0, 9 KOs) of East Los Angeles, California kept busy with a third-round knockout of an awkward James Hope (6-9-1, 4 KOs) of Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Hope, 137 ¾, looked to tie up Gomez, 138 ¾, as much as possible, which made for an ugly fight early. After two frustrating rounds, Gomez made room to land a devastating right that had Hope out before he hit the mat early in the third round. With no need to count, referee Tony Crebs immediately called a halt to the bout. Official time of the stoppage came at 53 seconds of the third.

In a bout fought forehead-to-forehead, Carlos Molina (15-0-1, 7 KOs) of Norwalk, California pounded out a hard-fought unanimous ten-round decision over Manuel Leyva (18-4, 10 KOs) of Downey, California. Though the scoring was justly wide for Molina, 137 ¾, the promising prospect met a willing adversary in Leyva, 139 ½.

After carefully picking his shots in the first, Molina staggered the southpaw Leyva with an overhand left at the bell to end round two. From that moment on, Molina was freer with his punches. As the fight progressed, Molina seemed comfortable standing on the inside, even if he had to take one from Leyva in order to land his own. Throughout the middle rounds, both fighters stood their ground and took turns taking their shots. Molina clearly held the edge in punching power, which gave him the edge round after round.

By the seventh, Leyva was finally giving up ground. Late in the round, Molina opened up and had Leyva in trouble in a corner. Molina uncorked a right hook at the bell that staggered Leyva, who looked lucky that time ran out when it did. Leyva managed to clear his head in between rounds and continued to take his shots until the end. The tenth featured one last two-way exchange to delight of the crowd. As far as “opponents” go, Leyva did his job of providing rounds and making Molina earn the decision, which came by scores of 100-90 and 99-91 twice.

Former title challenger Sakio Bika (29-5-2, 20 KOs) of Sydney, Australia ended a year-long layoff with a third-round stoppage of Alfredo Contreras (11-13-2, 5 KOs) of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Fighting for the first time since being undressed by Andre Ward late last year, Bika, 168, forced a referee’s stoppage after opening up cuts over both of Contreras’ eyes. Bika, who held a clear edge in physical strength, threw wildly for much of the fight. In the third, Contreras forced some spirited exchanges, which Bika was happy to oblige. Unfortunately for the fans and Contreras, he came away with the two cuts that would ultimately cause the bout to be stopped, which referee Tony Crebs ruled came from legal blows. After the ringside physician looked over Contreras in the corner at the end of the third, Crebs waved off the bout.

A bout between middleweight prospect Omar Henry (11-0-1, 9 KOs) of Houston, Texas and Lester Gonzalez (12-5-3, 6 KOs) of San Diego, California ended before it ever really started.

After a nondescript opening stanza, Henry, 165 ¾, and Gonzalez, 163 ½, came together with their heads early in the second round. The result was a nasty gash opened up above Gonzalez’ right eyelid. After consulting with the ringside physician, referee David Mendoza called a halt to the bout. Official time of the stoppage was 57 seconds of round two. It will go down in the books as a technical draw.

Touted super bantamweight prospect Richard Contreras (9-0, 8 KOs) of Riverside, California battered Juan Sandoval (5-8-1, 3 KOs) of San Bernardino, California en route to a fourth-round referee’s stoppage in the night’s opening bout.

Contreras, 123 ½, pummeled Sandoval, 124, late in round three after rocking the journeyman with an overhand right. The bell saved Sandoval from a likely knockdown, but all that did was delay the inevitable. With Contreras swinging away at Sandoval in a corner early in the fourth, referee Tony Crebs elected to stop the mismatch. Time off the stoppage was 38 seconds of round four.

Photos by Tom Casino/Showtime

Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortega15rds@lycos.com.