Abner Mares on comeback concerns: I wouldn’t do it if I weren’t 100 percent

Abner Mares will fight for the first time since 2018, returning to action on the Sept. 4 Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view headlined by Andy Ruiz Jr vs Luis Ortiz, and the reaction has been pretty divided.

Mares, now 36, understands the concerns many have, but says he’s certain he’s 100 percent for the fight.

“You guys have no idea how excited I am to be getting another chance to step in the ring and to do what I love,” Mares wrote on Instagram. “I know there’s is a lot of mixed emotion about my comeback fight, but I promise you that I wouldn’t be coming back If didn’t know I was 100 percent. Team Mares is back!”

Realistically, all we can really do is hope Mares (31-3-1, 15 KO) is right. He’s had detached retina issues, and eye injuries are nothing to play with anywhere in life, and certainly not in a business where you get attacked in the eye pretty frequently, even if you are much better than your opponent.

But he’s wanted to fight, and now he will. The only other comfort I’d consider here is that PBC haven’t put him on any shows since he had to pull out of a fight with Gervonta Davis in 2019, and that if they weren’t also sure he was legitimately, medically cleared, I don’t think they would put him in the ring again on one of their events.

Mares is clearly an organizational favorite, has been featured on their old FOX studio boxing talk show, and has been working as a color commentator for Showtime since the summer of 2020.

He’s gonna fight, so all we can do is hope it turns out alright, and furthermore, if maybe he doesn’t have it in the ring in September, he hangs up the gloves without the regret of wondering what more could have been.