On April 19th, Frank Espinoza got the most dreaded call a boxing manager can receive. Just days before his fighter, Abner Mares, was scheduled to face IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles that weekend, he was notified by Golden Boy Promotions that Agbeko had suffered severe case of sciatica as he landed on the West Coast and that the fight was in jeopardy.
“I was shocked; I was devastated,” said Espinoza, “because I knew all the work Abner had put into this fight and to hear the bad news, it was very discouraging.”
Then the manager had to be the messenger to his boxer.
“Bad news is never easy but I had to let Abner know right away because he needed to know the circumstances. He was like any other fighter; he was just as disappointed as you can imagine.”
