Yonnhy Perez-Abner Mares: This Could Be The Next Great Rivalry

Everyone wants to focus on the bad from last night. The bad was Israel Vazquez and how shot he is.

The fight was expected to be competitive but it just wasn’t. Instead on focusing on the bad from last night I want to focus on the good.

The good being the rivalry that was started, or continued from the amateurs depending on how you look at it, between Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares.

I stated multiple times on this website that I thought this fight would win Fight of The Year. It may have fell short but it was a hell of a scrap.

They have styles that mesh well and it showed last night. The fight ended in a draw and I thought that was acceptable even though Mares was the winner on my card.

It was very close but it would seem that the aggression of Perez won most of, if not all, of the middle rounds for him.

I felt that Mares didn’t do enough to take away the title from the champion and that was his downfall.

Perez retained his IBF bantamweight title with the win but one would imagine he wants a rematch with Mares and soon. He lost two out of three against Mares in the amateurs and now has drawn with him as a pro.

After the first three rounds or so it looked like this was heading towards fight of the year. What sets almost every other fighter apart from Vazquez and Rafael Marquez is they will eventually switch to a game plan that benefits them more.

That is exactly what Mares did. He used superior movement and hand speed to build a lead on my scorecard.

Although he changed his strategy some he didn’t back off and was still exchanging with Perez every round. Mares did say in his corner that he was getting tired so that could be why he moved around more.

Perez only has one mode and that is coming forward and throwing leather and that is what he did all night. Interestingly enough Mares landed 378 out of 1,062 compared to 276 out of 832 for Perez.

After Mares appeared to tire out in the middle rounds he came back and won most of the later rounds. He ended round 12 with a big flurry (out landing Perez 41 to 14) and even appeared to hurt Perez.

Neither fighter left anything in the ring and should be very proud. Mares improved his stock, and proved he wasn’t in over his head in the bantamweight division and Perez’s seems to stay pat.

They have styles that mesh well and it would seem they will not put on a bad fight no matter how many times they fight.

Showtime saw the close of one of the greatest rivalries ever but may have opened the book on another great rivalry. It also seems very appropriate that what could be the next great rivalry starts on the undercard of the last great rivalry.

Most people are focusing on the death of the Vazquez-Marquez rivalry but they should be focusing on the possible birth of a Perez-Mares rivalry.