Mares and Ponce De Leon Battle It Out On A Main Event Of Their Own on May Day

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The Floyd Mayweather coined “MayDay” is not just a 1 or 2 fight event. It features 4 fights that could all feature by themselves on a regular Showtime card. One of the fights that will sure to have numerous eyes on it is a highly contested championship bout between WBC Featherweight Champion Daniel Ponce De Leon vs. the undefeated Abner Mares in his 1st fight at the 126 lb weight class. This is a fight that could go either way and even as I write this, in my head, I’m still not sure which 1 of these 2 will come out on top. This is a typical type of fight that will come down to what the judges like. Will they prefer fewer punches that will be more effective or a higher amount of punches that may not hurt as much? It’s the same thing that seems to go on in half of the fights nowadays, what style favors the judge more

Daniel Ponce De Leon is a big puncher that is probably most known for his fight against Adrien Broner 2 years ago, a fight that numerous people think he won. I felt Broner won that fight 6 rounds to 4, but nevertheless, he showed that fight that he not only had power, but good technical ability. The man from Chihuahua, Mexico comes in with a record of 44-4 with 35 KOs. His 4 losses haven’t exactly been to no name fighters either, with his losses coming only to Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Adrien Broner, and Yuriorkis Gamboa.  He is hoping that a big win on a big stage will help propel him to a bigger money fight as he is already 32 years old.

Abner Mares is a warrior in the ring. He seems to always be up for fighting anyone at any time and seemingly at any weight. He is coming off an ultra-impressive win against Anselmo Moreno, in a fight where Mares was very aggressive and literally ran Moreno down for 12 rounds. He is also coming off a tireless stretch of opponents over the last 3 years that include Yonnhy Perez, Vic Darchinyan, and 2 fights against Joseph Agbeko at bantamweight and then a fight against Eric Morel and Moreno at junior featherweight. He did try to get a fight against 2012 fighter of the year Nonito Donaire, but after that contract was very publically denied, Mares made the decision to move up and face Ponce De Leon.

As I said earlier, this is a fight that is very hard to decide. Ponce De Leon is definitely the bigger puncher and the bigger fighter, but Mares aggressiveness that he showed in his last fight is very hard to deal with. If Ponce De Leon uses his weight a little bit, will Mares tire out? When 2 good Mexican fighters battle off, you know there will be fireworks in the ring, not to mention both fighters are managed by the same person (Frank Espinoza) , which is a rarity now a days. Add to the situation that it’s the weekend of Cinco De Mayo, and anything could happen this weekend. I’m going to go with what I consider an slight upset and take Mares by split decision. Normally split decisions are very hard to predict, but I feel Ponce De Leon will land the harder shots but Mares will land more and it will influence the judges in the closer rounds. No matter who comes out with the belt in this one, this, and the entire “MayDay” card seems to be a much watch event, enjoy the fights.