After one of the most horribly officiated and foul filled bouts took place this past August in the first meeting between Joseph ?King Kong? Agbeko 28-4 (22 KO?s) fighting out of the Bronx, New York via Accra, Ghana and Abner Mares 23-0-1 (13 KO?s) of Hawaiian Gardens, California via Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico where Abner Mares would throw and land as many as 28 low blows without a single point deduction en-route to a closely decided controversial title win over Agbeko, this fight would prove to be a different animal. For not only would Mares for the most part avoid hitting low, landing perhaps 3-4 shots south of the border during the course action, but Abner would totally distance himself as the quicker handed fighter throughout, visibly throwing and landing punches at almost twice the pace in many of the exchanges to remain undefeated by scores of 118-110 on all three judges scorecards, retaining his IBF and WBC Silver bantamweight titles in the process. As the overwhelming crowd favorite at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California near to where Mares grew up, Abner would jubilantly state, ?I?m happy that my fans finally saw my true boxing skills. I beat him the first time, and I beat him again. I knew I was winning the whole fight.? Bleeding most of the way through from a cut over his right eye courtesy of an accidental head butt as early as round two, Mares would not be deterred in his mission, even though Agbeko kept it close in the early going by being awarded two of the first four rounds on at least two of the judges scorecards. But from round five on, Abner would start to let his hands go to clearly separate himself as the obvious frontrunner, as it was apparent the Mexican fighter was much quicker than in his previous encounter with the Ghanaian fighter, beating counterpart Joseph Agbeko to the punch, as well as avoiding any meaningful return fire from the former champion, to include a repeatedly thrown sweeping left hook. ?Last time I was a little stocky,? Mares said. ?This time I didn?t have as much muscle, so I was faster.? Indeed speed was the key for Mares, who not only wins by a landslide, but he erases much of the negativity, and or related doubt concerning Agbeko versus Mares I, as the African fighter was coming on strong in the second half of that fight to perhaps have been awarded the decision, or at the very least a draw, which would have allowed Joseph to retain his title if in fact two controversial knockdowns did not go against Agbeko, and as well points were rightly deducted from Abner for low blows. As it stands though, Mares would leave no doubt amongst the entire boxing community this time around as to who the better man was in Saturday night?s title fight. Well almost the entire boxing community, as there were detractors amongst some of those close to Agbeko, to include Joseph himself who stated, ?I don?t feel like a loser. I think this decision is unfair. You shouldn?t have to knock out your opponent to win in California. I thought I fought better tonight than the last fight.?
