Mares vs Agbeko 2: Impressive Show Tanks at the Gate in Anaheim

Though Showtime, Golden Boy Promotions, Gary Shaw and Don King put together a compelling double-header last Saturday night in the bantamweight division, a pair of quality matchups barely made any dent at all at the gate in Anaheim.

Dan Rafael says (via the California State Athletic Commission) that the Honda Center was set up to hold 5,430 for the card, but sold just 1,161 tickets, with 918 comps given out to fill out the building a little bit, for a gate of just $70,313.

[ Related: Al Bernstein's Recap ]

The show, which featured the rematch of Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko, plus a fight between Anselmo Moreno and Vic Darchinyan, just didn't catch any buzz.

Media-wise, it was totally overwhelmed by the Cotto vs Margarito II card across the country at New York's Madison Square Garden, and it seems like even a live night at world class fights couldn't compare to folks in the Los Angeles area, who apparently chose staying home to watch the bigger fight on HBO pay-per-view.

[ Related: Photo Gallery From the Show ]

Certainly, this show wasn't set up to be some big money-maker, but I'm guessing everyone thought it would do better than this.

It's a real disappointment, and overall it's just a shame that such a good card had such little attention. It deserved much, much better than this, and my old argument that they should have just waited until January (I'm sure the IBF could have been talked into it) still stands. Obviously, they shouldn't have gone head-up with Cotto and Margarito, even though they were 2800 miles away.