By Rocky Morales at ringside
Four-time, three-division former world champ, Abner Mares (31-3-2, 15 KOs) fought to a majority draw with tough-as-nails Miguel Flores (25-5, 12 KOs) in a 10 round lightweight bout. It was the first appearance in the ring for Mares in 51 months and he got off to a nice start landing crisp counter punches over the aggressive Flores.
By the middle rounds, however, Mares started fading with Flores feeding off his weakening soul. In the seventh round, Mares was looking like a fighter trying to just go the distance and was all over the place with Flores in hot pursuit. The next couple rounds was more of the same with Mares only landing the occasional counter but Flores pressing the action and willing to eat a Mares counter to land his own shots.
The final round saw Flores going for broke and Mares just trying to make it to the final bell. Although Mares had his moments early on, Flores seemed like he did enough to win the fight as it went to the scorecards. Judges saw it 96-94 Mares and 95-95 even on the other two scorecards for a majority draw. Mares appeared disappointed in the draw but really was a shell of his former likely Hall of Fame self and should consider hanging up the gloves to concentrate on the broadcast booth.
Flores set the correct game plan in motion by building pressure up against Mares as the fight progressed. Mares had his moments early in the fight with wide and effective hooks. However, much fatigue was noted in the later rounds by Mares. That layoff was pretty apparent by Mares. A draw was fair in my opinion as Mares faded as the fight progressed. I feel Mares should be careful about his future in this sport. He already suffered a detached retina years ago and one must be very cautious as he comes back in the sport.
“Mares started fading with Flores feeding off his weakening soul. ”
I expected Sam and Dean from Supernatural to come save him.
Mares has NEVER been the same after Gonzalez took his heart out 4 years ago.
4 years ago? I just had to look it up on boxrec, it was 9 years ago. August 24th 2013.
mares has been washed up for almost a decade now. Why is he still fighting? Better question why is anyone paying him to fight or showing him on TV?
If he continues on, Mares needs to go to 130, if not 126. Even without the ringrust in his next fight, I think he gets hit entirely too much to compete with bigger guys.
Mares go back to showtime before the kill you lucky the guy dont have power,
mares please retire and go back to showtime your a good commentator the glory days are behind you
But he’s not a good announcer at all. He actually kinda sucks. A good announcer was the guy he replaced.
Mares is so self conscious about his eye that he wears sunglasses when announcing fight(badly, give Paulie Malignaggi his fuckin job back!!!!!!) and now he’s wearing them after his fight in the ring?
My question is, if hes so self conscious about it, why is he still fighting? He’s washed up and has serious health issues be ajse if fighting. I mean I get it, you were gifted an announcers job because Showtime has to show how progressive they were and fired Paulie Malignaggi for responding to Devin Haney’s racism. So Mares only has that job temporarily because let’s face it, he sucks esp compared to Malignaggi who is one of the best if no the best TV announcer in boxing today, but does that mean you need to risk going completely blind?
Jay, can you educate me here? What’s going on with his eye?
Mares is not a 135 pound fighter. He should be fighting around 126.
This fight reminds me some of Joe Frazier vs Jumbo Cummings. A few years back I watched that fight and I would say Cummings got the better of it…but there were enough close rounds to get away with a draw. Like Mares, Frazier had been off for a few years and was fighting someone who would never get to the level he had been at but like Flores, Cummings was a fringe contender type. IMO Mares should do what Frazier did and call it a day. He did not look totally shot but he did not look like someone who is going to be a player at the top anymore either. Plus like people on here are saying…135lb division is no joke. At 36..getting lower might be a challenge. I know it is easy for an ordinary guy like me to say….but I do not see an upside to him continuing.