The 26 year old, Abner Mares, is one of the best bantamweight champions in the world. Some might say he is the best bantamweight, with Nonito Donaire moving up to super bantamweight, he probably is. There definitely is a great case to be made. Bantamweight has sort of thinned out, and Mares has beaten everybody put in front of him. (aside from the draw versus Yhonny Perez) On, December 11th, 2010, Mares beat Vic Darchinyan by split decision, in a close, controversial bout. He then went on to fight Joesph Agbeko 8 months later, and win yet another close, controversial, majority decision. 4 months later, Mares and Agbeko had a rematch, and this time, no controversy. Mares set the record straight and clearly beat Agbeko by unanimous decision.
Mares’ opponent, Eric Morel, is on an 11 fight win streak. Now, let’s set the record straight. Morel, isn’t an elite level fighter. He isn’t a top, high class fighter. And he shouldn’t be on an 11 fight win streak. February, 13th of 2010, Morel fought Gerry Penalosa in a very, very good fight. But a fight, Morel should have lost. It was close, but Morel had no business winning that fight. Morel is a decent fighter, he has a couple of notable wins, but when you see a 46-2 record with 23 KO’s, you might think “Oh, wow! This guy is REALLY good!” But he isn’t. He isn’t as good as what his record indicates. He is a solid fighter, but Mares shouldn’t have too much trouble with Morel.
Now, I’m going to get to the issue I have with this card. Mares is the best, or one of the best bantamweights in the world. We’ve addressed this, but you may ask yourself, “Well, who would be a good challenger? or “Who would be right there with Mares?” Go ahead, you can read that out loud….did you do it out loud? No? Yes? Well, either way, the answer your looking for is Anselmo Moreno. Yes, Anselmo Moreno.
Anselmo Moreno is one of the best bantamweights and has held on to a bantamweight strap for awhile now, going back to mid 2008. Where Moreno traveled to Germany and beat Volodymyr Sydorenko. He outboxed 12 rounds, and there was justice. They gave Moreno the decision, the rightful decision. And from that point on, Moreno has won every fight. Including, his most recent fight where he made his United States debut. Moreno just flat out dominated Vic Darchinyan, and quite frankly, even though he dominated Darchinyan, I was still surprised he got the decision. I felt a bit like, well, just a couple of nights ago, the Brandon Rios-Richard Abril fight. Even though Abril dominated Rios, he didn’t get the decision. That’s how I felt about the Moreno-Darchinyan fight going in, and when the scorecards were about to be announced. Thankfully, justice was served, and Moreno got the rightful, wide, unanimous decision.
So, there’s a little background on Moreno, but back to why I’m frustrated with this card, and it should be obvious now, though. Mares and Moreno are two of the best bantamweights in the world fighting on the same card…but not against each other. That’s the frustrating part. Why are they fighting fighters that are a couple levels below them? It’s a shame. But, we haven’t quite yet talked about David De La Mora. Mora, is a green fighter, and only has one significant fight. That fight was against another good top 5-10 bantamweight in Koki Kameda, and he put up a great, great fight against Kameda. The difference in the fight was that he was knocked down in the third round. If he wins that round, which he was, and he doesn’t go down, he wins the fight.
When comparing the two opponents, I would say Moreno has the tougher task ahead. Morel, probably is a bit of a higher level than Mora, mainly, because of experience. Mora is still a very green, a bit of a crude fighter. The jury is still out on him. But, not only that, but Mora is a Mexican heading to the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. He isn’t from there, but he may as well be. Let me tell you, the crowd will get behind him. While, the crowd will definitely be pro Mares versus the Puerto Rican Morel. So, Moreno definitely has the tough task when you factor all that. Moreno should win though…and so should Mares. Both should be relatively easy. If that happens, may’be and hopefully, we can get the bantamweight showdown we all want to see.
Stay tuned for more articles all this week on the fights on Saturday, April 21st, 2012. I’ll be getting into the fights that will be televised on Showtime Extreme and the fights that will be in the dark. Giving you all the knowledge you need for this Saturday’s fights.
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