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TMT promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. just posted an announcement yesterday evening which appears to be for junior lightweight champion Gervonta Davis to make a title defense against Abner Mares before the year is out.
As of now there’s no date or place for this proposed fight, but my guess is that it indeed happens — much to my chagrin. I mean, call me cynical but this is one of those fights that sounds much better on paper than it probably is in reality.
For starters let me state that Mares (31-3, 15 KOs) is a capable fighter. That said, he’s an aging fighter, 32, who has been through a number of tough battles and is coming off a second loss to Leo Santa Cruz this past June. Now that’s not shameful or anything, but anytime an aging fighter finds himself in a title fight coming off of a loss I get a little skeptical.
Mares still has just enough name value to bolster Davis’ resume at this point in time, but he’s also long enough in the tooth that I don’t see him posing any serious threat to the much younger and fresher Davis. So when you consider that Mares’ best days are behind him, he’s coming off a loss, he isn’t a big puncher, and he’s moving up in weight for this fight — it all strikes me as a way to get Davis a ‘good win’ on paper with minimal risk.
But hey, that’s just my take. How do you feel about a Davis-Mares match-up?