According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, former three division world champion Abner Mares will invoke his rematch clause and will face Jhonny Gonzalez next despite being knocked out in the first round last Saturday night.
“When we prepared the contract with Golden Boy, I made sure we had a rematch clause,” Frank Espinoza, Mares’ manager, told ESPN.com on Thursday.
Espinoza said he hopes that the bout can take place in December and is talking to Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer about a deal.
“Abner wants the rematch,” Schaefer said. “He has a rematch clause and wants to do it before the end of the year. Abner called me himself and said, ‘I want to set the record straight and exercise my rematch option. This was nothing, it wasn’t a fight. I want to fight the guy again and I want to take care of it this year.'”
“Abner just wants to get right back in the ring with this guy,” Espinoza said. “You can’t judge that fight by one punch. It wasn’t even a fight. But Abner came out healthy. It was one punch and it happens to the best in boxing.”
“The way Abner is, he wants to come back and avenge his loss and prove himself,” Espinoza said. “Abner has always wanted to fight the best. After the fight, he called me and said, ‘Frank, I want to come back and I want to fight him again this year.’ Abner said he’s ready to go. He’s not afraid to fight anyone. So I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and I reached out to Richard Schaefer. He said he would work on it for December.”
“Richard’s going to work on it for December, but if we can’t get it done then we may have to wait until January, but my understanding is that December looks good,” Espinoza said.
“But Abner was very clear that he wants the fight next,” Schaefer said. “I don’t know if I can do it this year because it’s a pretty big fight and those kind of fights are expensive, but I will work on it and I will talk to Showtime about it.”
