Abner Mares and Anselmo Moreno were too much for their Showtime boxing opponents last Saturday (April 21) in respective impressive wins over Eric Morel and David De La Mora.
Moreno’s victory was a clinic of precision punching. In the second, De La Mora was hurt badly to the body with a straight left for a knockdown. De La Mora’s offense for the remaining rounds was reduced to wild flurries and lunging punches, the latter Moreno effectively countered with right hooks. Every time De La Mora went to the ropes, Moreno abused him with hooks downstairs. By the start of the ninth, the punishment was too much and De La More retired on his stool.
Abner Mares had a much more competitive time with Eric Morel, who he bulled past for a unanimous decision win. After a solid first round that saw Morel counter well from the outside, the veteran was wobbled by a succession of Mares’ hooks inside. By the fifth round, Mares’ was timing Morel’s jab with thudding overhand rights. While Morel would never fold and land well in every round, Mares’ pressure and power shots continually forced him to give ground. By the championship rounds, Morel had succeeded in drawing blood from Mares’ nose. Nonetheless, Mares would continue dominating the action with hard hooks. Morel made a definitive stand in the 12th, fighting Mares toe-to-toe for a thrilling finish. Final scores read 120-107 and 119-109 twice for Mares, who picked up the vacant WBC super bantamweight title.
With both Mares and Moreno at the top of their games and Golden Boy stable mates, the obvious question would be is the time ideal for these two to meet? It’s a classic contrast in styles with Mares the aggressive boxer-puncher and Moreno the highly-skilled technician. There are indeed other lucrative and crowd-pleasing alternatives for both like Nonito Donaire for Mares and Jorge Arce for Moneno. But considering those men are signed with contentious Golden Boy rival Top Rank, the odds are not good that either of those fights come off. In fact, the stronger likelihood is that Arce and Donaire end up fighting each other next.
While Golden Boy would surely like to let these two build separately for as long as possible, Mares vs. Moreno is definitely a fight that needs to be considered sooner rather than later. One of the big selling points of Mares is he’s one of the few young fighters that hasn’t been coddled with soft touches. He’s not looked back since stepping up to face elite fighters in 2010, having fought no less than a Top 5 fighter since. Facing Moreno would be more of the same. In addition, a loss at the lower weight classes is not viewed as a devastating setback as we many times see in the higher divisions. If the fight is good (and it should be), neither Moreno nor Mares would find their marketability damaged should they lose.
What do you think? Is it time for Mares vs. Moreno, or should this fight be left to build?
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
first time watching mares and moreno, was impressed with both of them… looking forward to seeing more