Top Bantamweight Nonito Donaire Willing to Fight Abner Mares
by Scott Christ on Aug 14, 2011 11:26 AM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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Nonito Donaire tells Ronnie Nathanielsz that he'd be open to fighting last night's controversial victor Abner Mares should the fight be presented to him. It won't be, because there's no sense in Golden Boy risking Mares against Donaire, but Donaire notes that he wouldn't be worried about Mares' well-deserved reputation for low blows:
Asked whether he was concerned with Mares’ penchant to land low blows Donaire replied "I don’t think he can because he won’t be able to catch me."
Donaire (26-1, 18 KO) returns to the ring on October 22 on HBO, while Mares (22-0-1, 13 KO) may end up looking at a rematch with Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO) after the refereeing controversy last night.
I'd like to make clear my own thoughts on Abner Mares. I think he's a good fighter. I also think he's a dirty fighter. I mean, this is two straight fights where his opponent is going to file a protest. Vic Darchinyan raised hell about low blows last year following a close loss to Mares in a great fight, and last night was just absurd. Mostly it was absurd because of referee Russell Mora's unbelievable refusal to do anything about Mares' repeated fouls.
I don't know that I can say I'm a fan of Abner Mares, but I do think he's a legitimate talent. He just has a tendency to throw low blows. A lot of good fighters have been dirty fighters. Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr have made habits of fouling over the years. Joel Casamayor was at one time one of my favorite fighters, and he was dirty as hell when he felt he needed to be.
What would raise Mares' respect level, I think, would be rematching Agbeko. Give the fight to a referee like Kenny Bayless. I don't see last night's scoring as controversial -- the scoring was OK. It was a close fight. But if Mares wants to cement his status as a top young fighter who deserves respect, I think he has to rematch Agbeko. Sure, if a money fight with Donaire was really on the table, he should take that, because Nonito isn't staying at 118 for long, and you can never really go wrong fighting the best guy in the division. And that's what Donaire clearly is. While we saw the second and third-best bantamweights duke it out last night, I don't think anyone would pick either of them to so much as give Donaire a truly competitive matchup.
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The scoring was only controversial in the sense that if the judges scored by the book on one absurd knockdown and the controversial knockdown in the first. Again, it falls on reffing, but if they were going by the letter, then it’s controversial.
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by BVandDietPepsi on Aug 14, 2011 11:47 AM EDT reply actions
Dirty Ref
Russell Mora is the same referee who disqualified Peterson for hitting Brandon Rios low repeatedly. So why didnt he do as much as take a point away from Mares? A dirty referee who is on the take. Mares is a good fighter and deserved to win, but not in that manner. Golden Boy will not be feeding their guy to Nonito Donaire who would knock this kid Mares out.
While I think that the lion’s share of blame belongs to Mora, I do think that some of the onus falls on Mares as well. If by some horrible chance he were to continue fighting as he did last night, but with stricter referees, he might possibly DQ himself out of a boxing career.
I know that, as Scott pointed out, there have always been dirty fighters, and I think that most fans have been dismayed by this, but we tend to tolerate it within fairly generous limits. Last night seemed beyond the pale, though.
I think that Mares really has an obligation of sorts to at least minimize this tendency of his. He simply has to be doing something wrong that’s peculiar to his approach; otherwise every fighter would be throwing 25 or 30 low blows in every fight that lasts 12 rounds. Since that doesn’t happen, what is it with Mares? I know that refs are supposed to keep things under control, but fighters also have an obligation here as well.
Mares is a really good fighter, and might well have won a clean version of last night anyway. But I wouldn’t want to keep watching him fight if he does this all the time.
I know that, as Scott pointed out, there have always been dirty fighters, and I think that most fans have been dismayed by this, but we tend to tolerate it within fairly generous limits. Last night seemed beyond the pale, though.
Right — I don’t mind dirty fighters, but last night was ridiculous.
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"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Aug 14, 2011 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Some fighters are dirty in the sense they will do whatever they can to win… Cotto was asked about this a while back in a response to his tendency to throw low bows.
The thing is that Mares kept doing something that he was never even discouraged to do by the ref. I don’t want to give him props for that, but… if they aren’t calling the fight one way… keep doing what you are doing. If a ref allows for rabbit punches… be willing to throw some rabbit punches… etc.
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
I understand that many people share this point of view, both fighters and fans.
Perhaps I’m unrealistic, but I think that the fairness and decency of the sport partly depends on the willing cooperation of the fighters; after all, they are given instructions, and there must be some purpose behind this.
Ideally, I see the presence of a referee as an additional deterrent, beyond the fighters’ sense of fair play and sportsmanship, to underhanded or illegal practice; to handle unusual situations (whatever they may be); to make rulings some of these unusual situations; and perhaps to help make sure that a fight actually remains a fight.
Now, I pulled the above more or less out of a hat, and I don’t expect everyone (or anyone, for that matter) to agree. But Mora clearly failed in most of these. Mares either had extraordinarily poor control over his technique, or failed in his obligations.
I’m not overly impressed with Mares and i’m certain that a special talent like Donaire would destroy the guy. He would stop him i’m sure.
Mares has only really scraped through in his biggest fights. I had the Darchinyan fight a draw or maybe Vic just shading it, depending on how you scored the KD and point deduction rds. Mares also drew with Perez and then there was this fight last night.
You only have to watch each guy fight to know that Donaire is by far the better fighter, and their fights against Darchinyan will back up my opinion too.
I really don’t think Donaire would have had much trouble with any of the guys that Mares has struggled with, plus Mares has limited power, he can’t outbox Nonito and he can’t beat him for speed either.
Donaire destroys all of these guys at 118. Gamboa will be his biggest challenge at 126, imo. And i would still pick him to win that one.
Mares and GBP will do everything to avoid ND.
I’m not overly impressed with Mares and i’m certain that a special talent like Donaire would destroy the guy. He would stop him i’m sure.
Donaire would truck him, and bad. I am 100% certain of that.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Aug 14, 2011 12:22 PM EDT up reply actions
I think both Agbeko and Moreno would be more difficult for Donaire than Mares. Even though they both almost certainly lose as well and the latter has indicated he’s not interested, I think their styles/attributes could at least potentially present problems for Donaire. I see no way Mares is standing at the end unless Donaire puts in one of his down performances.
Mares should consider going back to Nacho IMO. His footwork is still pretty poor and he was clearly fading in the middle and late portions of last night’s fight.
Donaire is just really too big for the 118 guys to accent his skills… but I disagree with you on Gamboa. I think Gamboa is just as talented as him and bigger than him.
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
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