Motivation For Donaire? Mares-Moreno Preview

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Tomorrow night, boxing fans will get treated to 2 good talented fighters that may not be on the mainstream level, but hope to be soon as Anselmo Moreno will face off against Abner Mares in the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the WBC Super Bantamweight title. This fight has been years in the making as both fighters have been top tier 118 lb fighters for more than 5 years now, both were on 12/3/2011 card in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and both were on the April 17th card earlier this year at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas.

Not only has this fight been rumored for a while, but it’s also known that both of them need this win to try to prove their case against current 122 lb king and top 5 pound for pound fighter, Nonito Donaire. If either one of these guys are impressive tomorrow now, it will put a lot of pressure on Donaire to fight the winner even though he is currently signed with Top Rank and both Moreno and Mares are signed with Golden Boy. Can Bob Arum deny the fans ANOTHER top tier fight that all boxers want to see? Sure he can, but there is always hope that he will eventually break, and give the fans the best fights in the world.

The 27 year old Panamanian Anselmo Moreno comes into this fight with a record of 33-1-1 with 12 KOs. He’s has won 27 consecutive fights, with his only 2 blemishes coming within the 1st 7 months of his professional debut, a draw with Javier Tello, and a loss to Ricardo Molina, both in 4 round fights. Moreno is a highly skilled fighter that is not known for his power, but is well known for his long 69 and half in reach, which is abnormally long for a Bantamweight and even long for a Super Bantamweight. He is very good at using that reach advantage with his good defense to keep opponents at bay while not getting hit very much. His last fight was very impressive against David De La Mora as he was dominating every round before surprisingly getting the stoppage and winning by TKO in round 9. It was only his 2nd fight in the US and he said that he knew he was going to be better in his 2nd fight than his 1st, as he stated that nervousness contributed to his lackluster performance against Vic Darchinyan.

Abner Mares comes into this fight with a record of 24-0-1 with 13 KOs. The Mexican-born fighter is known as one of the warriors of the sport. Mares comes into this fight winning his last 4 bouts, with his only career blemish being a majority decision draw to Yonnhy Perez 2 and a half years ago. Mares, like Moreno, is not known for his power, but he always puts on an exciting fight and if you saw his fight against Vic Darchinyan, his 2 fights against Joseph Agbeko, or even his draw against Perez, you would know why he is known as a warrior. Even lacking power, Mares will take any fight, against anybody, at any time, and will come out swinging. His last fight against the then 36 year old, Eric Morel was extremely impressive as he dominated every round to beat the at the time, 46-2 Morel to win the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight title that will be on the line tomorrow.

This probably will not be the type of fight that fans that only love KOs will like, but this is 1 of the top notch fights any pure boxing fan can see. Both fights have experience, a proven track record, and most importantly, motivation. Even though both of these fighters are both near to the top of their division, neither of them has gotten a big payday yet, so both of them have pride, respect, and money on the line Saturday night. Even though this is a tough one to pick for me, and I think it will be an extremely close fight, I think the reach advantage and the top notch defense by Moreno will find a way to outlast the Mexican warrior, Mares.

So my pick would be Moreno by unanimous decision.

So even though there will be another good fight on HBO with Vanes Martirosyan vs. Erislandy Lara, a fight that I would say should end pretty fast, with my pick being a Lara win by TKO, I would advise people to tune into Showtime and watch pure boxing at its best. The theme for Saturday will be motivation. The motivation will be to prove that you belong in the conversation for the top 2 guys at 122lbs. These 2 guys are on a crash course and they are both in each other’s way, and the carrot they are chasing at the finish line is Nonito Donaire, one of them will get the chance to tell him that they want him next, enjoy the fights.