Mares vs Moreno: Abner Mares focused on tonight, not looking toward Nonito Donaire or anyone else

Abner Mares says that while he knows there's demand for a fight between himself and Nonito Donaire down the line, he won't make the mistake of looking past top bantamweight Anselmo Moreno tonight on Showtime, live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and he feels he's got the right plan of attack against the crafty Panamanian:

"He hasn't fought me or hasn't fought my style," said Mares during a recent teleconference. "I like to figure out the opponent once we get in the ring, but I think with Anselmo it's just a matter of getting him out of his game plan and making it a really uncomfortable fight for him."

Still, Mares (24-0-1, 13 KO) is aware that Donaire represents the biggest potential fight in the 122-pound weight class today, and that fans want to see it:

"Nonito is a great fighter. He's really, really explosive. A really great fighter. ... I know and I've seen that people want that fight. They've been asking for that fight and they know that I could give them a hell of a fight and definitely beat him as well. But again, that's in the future, first things first."

If Mares can win tonight, that opens up the Donaire talks further. Hurting the chances of seeing that fight -- or Moreno against Donaire, for that matter -- is not just the fact that Mares and Moreno are Golden Boy fighters and Donaire is with Top Rank, but Bob Arum recently made comments about singing Mares in the future, which Richard Schaefer at GBP didn't take kindly to, to say the least.

These companies can work together on rare occasions -- Golden Boy has allowed Erislandy Lara to fight Vanes Martirosyan on a Top Rank card tonight, for instance -- but I don't think this will be one of those occasions.