By Lem Satterfield
Three-division champion Abner Mares said he believes left-handed WBC 126-pound champion Gary Russell is better than WBA “super” and WBO interim counterparts Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton during Saturday’s initial episode of “Inside PBC Boxing” on FOX.
The 33-year-old Mares (31-3-1, 15 KOs) serves as a lead analyst on the Premier Boxing Champions’ studio show along with two-time and current WBC 147-pound champion Shawn Porter.
“It’s not Leo, and people would say I would pick Leo because he’s beaten me twice already, but I don’t think it is,” said Mares, who has lost majority and unanimous decisions to “The Earthquake.”
“I honestly feel that the best and most talented fighter here is Gary Russell. He [Russell] only needs more fights to prove it. He needs to be more active, and honestly prove that, because he is one of the most talented fighters in boxing, period.”
Frampton (26-1, 15 KOs) is a two-division champion who has also called the 5-foot-4 Russell (29-1, 17 KOs) “a terrific fighter” and “certainly one of, if not, the best featherweights in the division.”
Santa Cruz (35-1-1, 19 KOs) defeated Frampton in Las Vegas by majority decision in a January 2017 rematch of Frampton’s victory the same way in July 2016 in Brooklyn, New York, and has a stay-busy defense against Miguel Flores (23-2, 11 KOs) on February 16th at a venue to be determined in Los Angeles.
In the hopes of forcing a trilogy against Santa Cruz, if not, a unification with Russell, Frampton looks to impressively dethrone IBF counterpart Josh Warrington (27-0, 6 KOs) on December, 22, in Manchester, England.
The 30-year-old Russell is 5-0 with three knockouts since losing a WBO vacant title bout by majority decision to current three-division king Vasyl Lomachenko in June 2014, rebounding with a unanimous decision over Christoper Martin that December.
Russell easily earned his crown in his next fight in March 2015, his three-knockdown, fourth-round stoppage dethroning hammer-fisted Jhonny Gonzalez. Russell’s initial defense was a three-knockdown, second-round TKO of Patrick Hyland in April 2016.
Gonzalez was making the third defense of the crown he won in August 2013 by two knockdown, first-round KO of Mares, loser to Santa Cruz by unanimous decision in a battle of three-division champions and a June rematch of Santa Cruz’s majority decision in August 2015.
“Mr.” Russell’s last fight was in May at the MGM Grand National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, near his hometown of Capital Heights. In that bout, Russell overcame a right hand damaged in the second round as well as a brutal body attack to win his third defense by unanimous decision over Joseph Diaz (27-1, 14 KOs).
In the MGM Theater, Russell returned to the site where he scored a seventh-round TKO over former champion Oscar Escandon in May 2017, marking the first time Escandon had been stopped.
A win over Warrington would follow-up Frampton’s WBO interim title-winning unanimous decision over four-division champ Nonito Donaire in April and a ninth-round TKO in August of previously undefeated 2012 Olympic team captain Luke Jackson, whom he floored with an eighth-round body shot in Belfast.
Mares, in turn, is a massive underdog as he reportedly rises from 126 pounds to challenge 24-year-old, two-time 130-pound champion Gervonta Davis (20-0, 19 KOs), a WBA “super” titleholder who, like Spence, is perceived to have superior advantages in size, speed and power.
Mares is after his fourth crown in as many divisions reportedly on February 9 at a venue to be determined in Southern California near Mares’ native Los Angeles.
“This is the most under-rated weight class in boxing. All of these guys are fun to watch, explosive, high punch output, even you, Abner. At one point, any of you guys can be a champion,” said Porter.
“It’s hard to say who is going to really take over that division because everybody’s talented and everybody’s exciting to watch. I think maybe of those three guys, I’d have to go with Leo, I’d have to go with Leo. He’s my favorite out of those three.”