Abner Mares Wills His Way To Decision Darchinyan

By Chris LaBate

At the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington, Abner Mares (21-0-1, 13KOs) picked up a twelve round split decision over Vic Darchinyan (35-3-1, 27KOs) to win the IBO bantamweight title and the vacant WBC silver title. The scores were 115-111 Darchinyan and 115-112 and 115-111 for Mares.

Darchinyan started very strong with a good first and a knockdown in the second round. In the fourth Mares deducted a point for foul. Mares suffered a bad cut near the top of his head in the fourth round from a clash of heads. Mares began to do some very strong body work and dropped Darchinyan in the seventh round. Mares and Darchinyan continued to battle the rest of the way with Mares doing some very good work to the body to wear Darchinyan down.

Mares moves forward in Showtime's bantamweight tournament and faces the winner of Yonnhy Perez vs. Joseph Agbeko in the finals.