Abner Mares vs Daniel Ponce De Leon - Post-Fight Report

Abner Mares Vs Daniel Ponce De Leon - Fight Preview

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

There isn’t just one world title fight in Las Vegas this weekend. Of course, there’s the one everyone’s talking about between the pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather and Robert Guerrero, but on the undercard we could well be treated to an even more exciting and action-packed world title fight between Daniel Ponce De Leon and Abner Mares. De Leon will be looking to make the first defence of his WBC featherweight title against the highly-rated former 118 & 122lb champion Mares.

Mares has a perfect record of 25-0 with 13 KO’s with victories over some of the best fighters in the sport at bantamweight and super-bantamweight. Wins over guys like Vic Darchinyan, Joseph Agbeko, Eric Morel and most recently Anselmo Moreno have propelled him to superstardom and put him in a position where he stands just a few fights away from becoming one of the sports pound-for-pound best - That’s if he isn’t already there. This will be his first fight at featherweight and he will be diving straight into the deep end when he takes on WBC champ Ponce De Leon.

Abner Mares to become mandatory challenger to Ponce De Leon!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

WBC President Jose Sulaiman has said that former two-weight world champion Abner Mares will become the organisation's mandatory challenger for Daniel Ponce De Leon's WBC featherweight world title.

Ponce (44-4, 34 KO's) was originally scheduled to face the initial mandatory challenger Jayson Velez on March 2nd but Velez withdrew due to an injury suffered in training. The WBC will now replace him, putting Mares (25-0, 13 KO's) in the mandatory spot.

Mares has just recently vacated the WBC super-bantamweight title to move up in weight in an attempt to become a three-division world champion. Sulaiman explained that "a fighter giving up his title to move up in weight, he becomes the mandatory challenger (to the WBC title at the weight above." He also said that "it would be great to see a fight between Ponce and Mares."

Abner Mares vacates title and steps up to featherweight!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97. 

Has Abner made the right decision?

I have to be honest, I was slightly disappointed when I saw someone share this news on Twitter. Mainly because it means that another super-fight is going to be passed by in Nonito Donaire Vs Abner Mares, but also because I do genuinely believe it is too early for Mares.

If you haven't heard already, highly-rated Mexican Abner Mares has chose to vacate his WBC super-bantamweight world title and is stepping up in weight to fight at featherweight. Mares has stated on many occasions that he was only sticking around at 122lb if a fight with the division's No.1 and pound-for-pound contender Nonito Donaire was made. And with Donaire Vs Rigondeaux looking likely for April, I guess he just got fed up of waiting and decided to finally take the step up. I say "finally" but I do think this is way too early for 'Lil Abner.'

With only two fights at super-bantamweight against extremely talented, but smaller guys (Anselmo Moreno and Eric Morel), there's still a lot for him to do at the weight. A fight with either Rigondeaux or Donaire would have came at one point and there's other fighters there that may not be as talented, but still have big names. Fights with Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton and even Leo Santa Cruz would all have been mouth-watering match-ups and big paydays for the 27-year old.

The other problem is his size. At only 5"4 he is going to find himself coming up against a lot taller and physically bigger guys. I know he's got a lot of strength but does he have enough to out-muscle and grind out victories against top-class featherweights such as Mikey Garcia, Chris John and Daniel Ponce De Leon? That's a question that currently has no answer, but I'm sure it will do soon. Because we know with a guy like Abner Mares he will be straight in there with the elite guys in the division and looking to win even more titles.

Is this a wise move from the young superstar or is it a risk that just isn't worth taking at this current time? Can the two-weight world champion make it three out of three weight divisions at featherweight?

Canelo getting paid almost 10 times more than Lopez...

Lopez (left) & Alvarez (right) face-to-face at public press conference.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission have announced that WBC world light-middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez will receive $2,000,000 for his fight on September 15th. His opponent Josesito Lopez will receive only $212,500 when the two meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Now, I'm not saying that it's unfair that Alvarez is receiving more than Lopez, as he is obviously the much bigger star, but considering Marcos Maidana is just an undercard fighter and he is receiving $250,000, I think Lopez deserves a little more than what he is getting.

As this show will be going head-to-head with the fantastic show put on by Top Rank (Julio Cesat Chavez Jr Vs Sergio Martinez), Golden Boy have jam-packed the show with a top class undercard that has cost them a lot in purse bids.

Below is what the undercard fighters will be receiving:

Jhonny Gonzalez ($40,000) Vs Daniel Ponce De Leon ($100,000).

Marcos Maidana ($250,000) Vs Jesus Soto Karrass ($80,000)

Leo Santa Cruz ($85,000) Vs Eric Morel ($35,000).

 

By Jack Price (@PriceyJ97)

Abner Mares talks about his past, training and fight with Ponce De Leon

EsNewsReporting.com