Agbeko Could Be Ready For Mares Fight By Summer
Joseph Agbeko, International Boxing Federation (IBF) Bantamweight Champion, will return to the ring in six weeks time to prepare for the proposed unification bout against Abner Mares in July.
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Latest Abner Mares news
Team Mares Not Interested in a Darchinyan Rematch
Boxing manager Frank Espinoza has said they have big plans in store for Abner Mares, but a rematch with Vic Darchinyan was not part of those plans. Espinoza told reporter Charles Winter that Mares and his team are going to wait for an updated report on the medical status of IBF champion Joseph Agbeko.
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Shaw Will Push For Darchinyan-Mares IBF Interim-Clash
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After witnessing Vic "Raging Bull" Darchinyan's dominant performance against former champion Yonnhy Perez tonight at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles, promoter Gary Shaw says the two-time world champion will have several options.
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Abner Mares – Boxing’s Patient Warrior
By Thomas Gerbasi - Abner Mares laughed, probably for one of the few times since he was notified that his bantamweight championship bout against Joseph Agbeko this Saturday was going to be postponed due to a sciatica attack suffered by “King Kong” earlier this week. The reason for this sudden outburst? A question about the menu for Thursday night’s dinner now that he didn’t have to make the 118-pound weight limit a day later. “A big plate of baby back ribs,” beamed Mares, who was then quick to point out that he wasn’t going to go crazy because he wanted to maintain the shape he was in as he awaits the next call to the ring. It’s the type of approach we’ve come to expect from the 25 year old, who seems so much older because of that maturity and for the fact that he’s been tabbed for great things in this game ever since he entered the pro game after representing Mexico in the 2004 Olympics. That’s nearly seven long years, years made longer by a career-threatening detached retina suffered in 2008, a reluctance of some big names at bantamweight to fight him, and a 2010 draw with Yonnhy Perez in his first world title bout. So when he found out Thursday that Agbeko was withdrawing from their bout for the IBF belt, it was almost par for the course for the Montebello, California resident. “I think I’ve been through so many things that somehow, someway, that patience is helping me out,” he said. “It’s difficult at this time knowing that I had the fight of my life in front of me, but things happen for a reason. I wish Agbeko the best, I hope he’s in the best of health, and we’ll just move on.”
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Insider Notebook: De La Hoya, Arum on Pacquiao vs Ortiz
By Robert Morales - Saturday’s main event on HBO featuring Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz attracted 1.5 million viewers, making it the highest audience for a fight this year on HBO. This audience number is for the live Saturday night airing of the fight on the network. If Manny Pacquiao successfully defends his welterweight world title against "Sugar" Shane Mosley next month and then were to sign to fight Victor Ortiz, Oscar De La Hoya said he knows what would happen. "I have to say if they fight four, five months from now, I have Victor winning probably by knockout," said De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Ortiz. "Victor's a strong guy, a strong guy." Indeed, Ortiz looked like a beast in moving up in weight and wresting away Andre Berto's welterweight world title via unanimous decision on Saturday in Connecticut. The sixth round, in which Ortiz was dropped with a huge right cross, apparently told De La Hoya a lot because of the way Ortiz responded. "The big right hand he got caught with in the sixth round, I didn't count him out, but I didn't think he was going to get up and drop Berto," De La Hoya said. But Ortiz did, at the end of the round. It was, perhaps, a round that proved to be Ortiz's coming out party because it was the same round in which he was stopped by Marcos Maidana in June 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. That was the fight in which many thought Ortiz might have given up the ship. Ever since, Ortiz has had to listen to experts and other fighters - including Berto - question his heart.
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Photos/Quotes: Darchinyan-Perez, Agbeko Final Presser
LOS ANGELES – Two-division world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan and former International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight champion Yonnhy “El Colombiano” Perez will clash in the new main event on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING this Saturday, April 23, live on SHOWTIME® (10:30 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) from Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE.
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Eric Morel on Vacation: Wants Donaire, Moreno, Mares
Bantamweight Eric Morel, who is in Puerto Rico with his family for the Easter holidays, still found time to hit the gym in order to squeeze in some training time to stay in shape for a possible title fight in the near future. Golden Boy Promotions had contacted the boxer on Wednesday to face Abner Mares on Saturday night in Los Angeles, but Morel turned the offer down because he wouldn't be ready for such a fight with so little notice. Golden Boy wanted Morel to replace the injured Joseph Agbeko.
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Bantamweight Tourney: Upset Season Gives Way to Parity
By Jake Donovan - It’s already been a crazy month for upsets, which of course makes for great storylines in a sport whose survival is dependent upon finding new ways to reinvent the wheel. Shocking results have been posted on every conceivable level in the past couple of weeks – HBO, Showtime, ESPN2, Telefutura and the most recently on the other side of the world when 39-year old Muhammad Rachman because a two-time strawweight titlist after upsetting Kwanthai Sithmorseng. The bad news is that the likelihood of an upset occurring in the final leg of the bantamweight tournament this weekend is not that great. The good news is the reason behind it – every matchup within the tournament is competitive enough on paper to where no outcome is truly surprising. This much has already been proven in the opening round of the bantamweight foursome late last year. Joseph King Kong Agbeko hadn’t fought since suffering a loss to Yonnhy Perez on Halloween ’09, but enjoyed a much better go of things in reversing the outcome when they met nearly 14 months later. Abner Mares’ night against Vic Darchinyan was far more problematic. The 2004 Mexican Olympian survived a near disastrous first four rounds – including a knockdown and point deduction – to rally back and take hard-fought split decision over the former two division champ. Even if neither fight turned out as expected, the results still weren’t shocking. There was reason to believe that Perez – the only titlist in the tournament at the time – would be able to duplicate what he did against Agbeko more than a year prior, even though that very result was considered a bit of a shocker at the time. It was also plausible that Mares – who came dangerously close to dethroning his close friend Perez earlier last year – would succumb to Darchinyan’s punching power at some point, even if youth and skill level were on the Mexican’s side.
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Tomoki Kameda Turns Down The Abner Mares Fight
Widespread rumors began to circulate that unbeaten bantamweight Tomoki "Little Mexican" Kameda had emerged as the leading candidate to face Abner Mares, this Saturday at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Kameda was being pursued to replace the injured IBF champion Joseph Agbeko, who withdrew on Wednesday.
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Details on Joseph Agbeko's Collapse From Eyewitness
In a follow-up to an earlier story on BoxingScene.com, IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko is unable to move forward with Saturday's defense against Abner Mares, which is scheduled to headline a Showtime televised doubleheader at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Agbeko vs Mares was the final bout of Showtime's bantamweight tournament.
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