A fateful night at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., two years ago almost to the day — Aug. 24, 2013 — has had a profound effect on the life and career of Abner Mares.
It was the night Mares, then a rising star in the boxing world, an undefeated WBC featherweight champion, never made it out of the first round. He was dropped by a left hook from veteran knockout artist Jhonny Gonzalez, then hit the canvas a second time after a right hook before referee Jack Reiss stopped it. It was a stunning upset in every sense.
Many of Mares’ fans, and many in the media believed he was exposed as a fighter that night. His stock dropped precipitously.
Two years later, Mares takes a philosophical view of the loss.
“It was one of those punches where he hit me right on the button, and I went down,” Mares told USA TODAY Sports. “I did not feel pain. I did not feel sad. I didn’t feel any kind of emotion other than ‘I gotta get up and get back in this,’ which I did.
“But then I made a rookie mistake, and I started trading punches with him when I knew I was hurt. An experienced fighter would have held, but I didn’t. I started trading punches and there goes the second knockdown, and the referee waved it off.”
He says he has thanked Reiss several times for stopping the fight when he did and minimizing the damage.
“It wasn’t a nightmare. I’m thankful that happened that night,” he said, “because it put me where I am today.”
Where the former three-division champion is today is preparing for the biggest fight of his career. He will meet undefeated Leo Santa Cruz, a wizard of the sweet science, at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday (PBC on ESPN, 10 p.m. ET) in a 12-round featherweight bout.
There is no title on the line — Santa Cruz (30-0-1, 17 KOs) is a super bantamweight champion fighting up a weight class for the second time. But bragging rights in L.A., where both reside, among the Mexican-American community and, most important, a title shot down the road, are at stake.
Since the loss to Gonzalez, Mares, 29, has three consecutive victories to improve to 29-1-1 (15 KOs). There were times he doubted he’d ever get his mojo back.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t (doubting himself). It did get into my head, and the reason was I got a little bit weak-minded,” he said. “I’ve always considered myself really strong mentally. But around that time, my mind just (went) boom.
“But you know what? That’s why I see boxing different now. I let people get to me. I let social media get to me. And people talking down on me and bad about me. I got caught up in all that.”
Mares points to himself when he says athletes are susceptible to being bullied on social media.
“But once I got help from people and family to get over that, I realized I am who I am. It doesn’t matter what people said,” he explained. “And that’s why I go to schools and talk about bullying, because us athletes, we get bullied, too, on social media.
“No doubt, I thought I was done. But here I am, back again, and there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to come out victorious on August 29 and prove to people that I was never gone.”
Mares’ circuitous journey through life has taken him from Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was born, to Tijuana, to Los Angeles, back to Mexico and finally, back to L.A.
His mother gathered her seven children when Abner was about 7 and set off for the U.S. nearly penniless, to seek a better life for her family.
“A lot of things that marked my life I remember well,” Mares said. “One, in (Tijuana) for my birthday, my mom gave me a chocolate. That was my birthday cake.
“Over here, we had no money and I remember her taking us to the store — I feel embarrassed to say this — but she’d say, ‘Eat whatever you want,’ and we were eating out of the store and not paying for it. Those were things that marked my life in a way I’ll never forget. But that was her way of trying to help us.”
In his early teens, Mares got involved with a street gang in the Hawaiian Gardens section of L.A. where they lived. When his parents found out he was about to be “jumped” (initiated into the gang), they shipped him back to Mexico. He begged and pleaded to come home, to no avail.
“I was upset with my parents,” he said. “At the time I thought they were just trying to get rid of a problem, trying to get rid of me. I was really, really mad and frustrated.”
It turned out to be a godsend for Mares. He lived in Mexico until he was 20 and started his amateur boxing career there, eventually fighting for Mexico in the Athens Olympics. He was discovered by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, who signed him at 19. He was with Golden Boy for seven years, becoming their first home-grown champion. He’s now with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
“I did not leave Golden Boy, I want to make that clear,” Mares said. “It seems that way because I’m with another company, but the contract ended. I extended it one time. Five years the first time, then for two more years. And that’s when Al (Haymon) was in the picture. I never saw a contract from Golden Boy. I waited and waited.
“I don’t want to throw Golden Boy under the bus because they were so good to me. I got nothing bad to say about them. But this is a business. … So I had to move on. I had a career to continue and a family to feed.”
Being sponsored by Under Armour helps to feed his family, but Mares knows this fight means everything for his future and that of his wife and two daughters.
“I’m not just fighting for brags in L.A., I’m not just fighting for another win, I’m fighting for my career. I’m fighting for much more than that. … This fight will really put an exclamation point on me, Abner Mares, that I never left.”
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