A low blow deduction, knockdown, and lacerated forehead were not enough to deny young Abner Mares, who outworked dangerous puncher Vic Darchinyan for a hard-earned split decision.
Mares endured early issues in round one with a bad cut on his hairline, caused by an errant clash of heads. In the second, Mares was dropping for a flash knockdown from a Darchinyan straight left. Mares remained composed and continued using hard hooks downstairs as the cornerstone of his offense. Every time they landed, a backpedaling Darchinyan would freeze and hold immediately. The aggression would give Mares a clear advantage in round three despite a stern ref warning for low blows.
In rounds four and five, Vic Darchinyan unloaded hard left uppercuts and hooks into Mares. The young Mexican never stopped his attack, and returned the favor with right hooks and straights. But his aggression did result in another low blow, and the referee took a valuable point following complaints from Darchinyan. The fifth featured good back and forth action, with Darchinyan landing eye-catching single shots with right hook and left uppercuts, and Mares outworking him with activity to the body.
Mares caught a huge break in the fight when he scored his own flash knockdown in the seventh. Darchinyan was caught off balance by a glancing jab, and sheepishly tried to convince the ref it was a slip. Darchinyan rebounded in the eighth with hard left uppercut potshots, but got overconfident and stunned in the ninth from. Mares, feeling the fight was close, bullied Darchinyan to the ropes and hurt him with hooks to the body.
With younger 25 year old legs, and having invested all of the fight to the body, Abner Mares was the fighter with stronger legs in the championship rounds. The 34 year old Vic Darchinyan constantly backpedaled and held anytime the Mares got close. Still, Mares always kept any free hands in motion and working the body. The 11th featured both men brawling, and the fresher and blood soaked Mares was the one welcoming it and refusing to hold. Darchinyan finished no better in the 12th, looking for hard single shots while Mares outworked him.
In the end, the judges preferred Abner Mares’s volume over Vic Darchinyan’s harder but lower punch output. The scores read 115-111 Darchiyan, and 115-112, 115-111 for Abner Mares.
Afterward, Mares spoke on Darchinyan’s power, and called this fight his hardest test.
“I showed I could close the championship rounds. It was my hardest fight ever,” Mares explained, improving his record to 21-0 with 13 KOs. “Our plan was to push him back. He has a tremendous punch.”
Darchinyan, suffering his third defeat (35-3-1, 27 KOs) was not as gracious, and blamed the referee for thwarting his fight plan through constant warnings.
“It’s disgusting, very bad ref,” Darchinyan said bitterly. “3-4 rounds I was in front. He was punching low. The ref didn’t let me fight my fight.”
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Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko (28-2, 22 KOs) was on the losing side of a 2009 Fight of Year candidate with Yonnhy Perez (20-1-1, 14 KOs). This time, Agbeko nullified Perez’s offense en route to a clear decision victory.
Agbeko swept the first four rounds with hard 1-2’s to the head and body. Agbeko used constant lateral movement, and made sure he was out of range after every combination.
It wasn’t until the sixth that Perez closed the gap. Pinned against the ropes, Agbeko was now being timed with thudding straight rights. Agebko returned fire, but with nowhere to move Perez clearly got the better of it. The action was Round of the Year worthy, and got an inspired response from the fans present.
Agbeko did not get rattled, or let the round lure him into another brawl, Perez’s best chance of victory. Instead, Agbeko went right back to the game plan. Yonnhy Perez would have more moments, such as the good right hands he landed in rough eight, but Joseph Agbeko proved too elusive for Perez to build any momentum. Agbeko ended the fight like he began, sweeping rounds 10-12 with solid hooks to the body, and splitting Perez’s guard with straight rights down the middle.
Two of the scorecards reflected Agbeko’s execution, giving him the fight by tallies of 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113. The win evens the score with Perez, and gives Agbeko the IBF bantamweight title heading into next year’s tournament finals with Abner Mares.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 