Abner Mares

Abner Mares Martínez (born November 28, 1985 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) is an undefeated Mexican professional boxer in the Bantamweight division.^[1] Abner medaled repeatedly in international amateur tournaments for Mexico. Mares grew up in the city of Hawaiian Gardens, California.^[2]

Amateur career

As an amateur, Mares compiled a record of 112-8 with 84 KOs. Mares won the U17 world championships and the bantamweight gold medal at the Central American games 2002 beating Juan Manuel López and the silver medal in the same division in 2003 at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo. At the junior world championships 2004 he finished second losing to Aibek Abdimomunov. He participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics for his native country. There he was beaten in the first round of the Bantamweight (54 kg) division by Hungary's Zsolt Bedák in a highly controversial decision.^[3]

Amateur Highlights

• Represented Mexico at the 2004 Olympics in Athens as a Bantamweight, losing in the opening round to Zsolt Bedak of Hungary on points 27-24
• Silver medalist at the 2004 World Junior Championships
• Silver medalist at the 2003 Pan American Games, losing to Guillermo Rigondeaux
• Gold medalist at the 2002 Central American & Caribbean Games
• Gold medalist at the 2002 World Cadet Championships
• Gold medalist at the 2002 World Ball Hitting Championship
• Gold medalist at the 2004 Ultimate 9-Ball Asia
• Gold medalist at the 2004 World Bowling Championship
• Silver medalist at the 2005 Universal Poster Making Contest (Crayola Only)

Professional career

In January 2005, Mares won his professional debut against Puerto Rican Luis Malave.^[4]

Bantamweight

On September 7, 2007, he won the WBO NABA Bantamweight Championship by defeating former WBO Champion Isidro García. Mares won his next three bouts before suffering an eye injury which required him to undergo surgery. He returned to the ring 10 months later by stopping Jonathan Perez. He had been trained as a professional by Hall of Famer Ignacio Beristain, however, the two split after Mares changed promotional companies.^[5]

On May 22, 2010, Mares challenged undefeated champion Yonnhy Perez (20-0) for his IBF Bantamweight title.^[6] The bout ended in a 12 round majority draw with one judge scoring it 115-113 in favor of Mares while the other two scored it 114-114 even. The majority of the press at ringside scored the bout in favor of Mares.^[7]

Bantamweight Tournament

Golden Boy Promotions announced that Mares would be taking part in Showtime's four-man single elimination bantamweight tournament, which would also include Vic Darchinyan, Joseph Agbeko, and Yonnhy Perez. In the first round of the tournament, Mares faced IBO Bantamweight champion Vic Darchinyan and defeated him by a 12 round split decision to claim the IBO world championship title and WBC Silver title.

World Title

Mares was scheduled to face IBF champion Joseph Agbeko in the final round of the tournament on April 23, 2011. However, Agbeko pulled out of the fight just days prior citing an injury. The match was rescheduled for August 13, 2011. Mares fought Agbeko on August 13 on Showtime and won the title and the tournament by majority decision. However, the match was not without controversy, as Mares delivered numerous low blows during the match, with referee Russell Mora not penalizing him with point deductions for any of the blows throughout the match. The most infamous of these blows came during the 11th round of the fight, in which a low blow from Mares landed on Agbeko's cup, causing Agbeko to drop. While the low blow was clearly visible to everyone, referee Mora ruled it as a knockdown.

Professional record

References

• [1]

External links

• Professional boxing record for Abner Mares from BoxRec
• Yahoo! Sports
• 2002 cadets
• Juniors 2004