By: Albert Alvarez
This past weekend, Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8) took the WBC featherweight title away from Abner Mares by knocking Mares down twice in the first round, thus forcing referee Jack Reiss to step in and wave the fight off with 5 seconds remaining in the opening stanza. Mares (26-1-1) was clipped with a sharp short left hook right on the chin, went down, and never fully recovered from the shot. Mares got up and beat the count, but did so on jello legs and glassy eyes.
The bout continued, and Gonzalez immediately jumped on Mares and connected yet again with damaging left hooks and straight rights. Mares fought back on his shield during the final exchange of the round, but he should have held on to Jhonny instead of allowing for his pride to walk him into the fire. As a result, Mares suffered his first defeat and must now take some well needed time off and then return to the drawing board.
Before the fight, I was asked if I would be inking a prediction piece on the fight, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so. A part of me felt that Mares would be too much for Gonzalez and would send Gonzalez into retirement, but a bigger part of me was hesitant to fully pull the trigger on that prediction. I thought to myself that there was a real good chance that Gonzalez’s trainer, Nacho Beristain would be able to see an open spot that his fighter could exploit. I also figured that since Nacho at one time used to train Mares, that he may have remembered a few bad habits and then worked with Gonzalez in camp on how to take full advantage of those flaws.
After the one round clash with Gonzalez, Mares was very gracious in defeat and mentioned in his post fight interview that he was not in this sport to remain undefeated and that he is here to fight the best. I for one, wish that every fighter thought along those same lines. I have no doubt in my mind that Abner Mares will be back stronger than ever, and Jhonny Gonzalez proved that he is still very much in the picture and should be taken serious.
Santa Cruz the torture chamber
On the nights co-feature bout, Victor Terraza (37-3-1) ran into a terminator and was stopped in the 3rd round by the walking torture chamber, Leo Santa Cruz. Terraza was as game as could possibly be, but Santa Cruz proved to be a beast that Terraza has never seen before. Santa Cruz (25-0-1) ripped his opponent with hooks upstairs, downstairs, upper cuts, and stayed on top of Terraza like a blanket from start to finish. Terraza was knocked down twice in the third round and got back to his feet both times, but referee Lou Moret stepped in after the 2nd knockdown and determined that Terraza had taken enough punishment.
Santa Cruz, the now new WBC super bantamweight champion, reminds me of a smaller version of Antonio Margarito or Brandon Rios. He simply steps to you with his main objective being to overwhelm his foes with suffocating pressure. Leo also does a very good job at blocking punches with his high guard on the outside and especially on the inside.
Before the night began, the plan was to pin Mares and Santa Cruz against each other in a action packed clash for early next year should both fighters come out victorious. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is why the fights are fought. One single perfectly placed punch can, will, and has derailed many future fight plans.
