Abner Mares Upsets Jesus Cuellar, Captures Another World Title

Abner Mares has done pretty much everything in boxing. He was an Olympian in 2004 and he captured world championships at bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight. On Saturday night on Showtime, he became world champion again at 126 pounds after a three-year drought without a title.

Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) was masterful in the main event at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles as he out-boxed, out-foxed and out-slugged defending WBA featherweight champion Jesus Cuellar for 12 rounds. Mares dropped Cuellar (28-2, 21 KOs) in the 11th with a perfect left hook, but he couldn’t put him away. In the end, Mares was superb and won a hard-fought and well-earned unanimous decision with scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112.

In the co-feature, Jermall Charlo remained unbeaten as he defended his IBF junior middleweight title against previously-undefeated Julian Williams. Charlo was in control from the start as he decked Williams (22-1-1, 14 KOs) in the second and then took him off his feet twice more in the fifth. The fight was mercifully stopped in that fateful round at the 2:06 mark, allowing Charlo to retain his title. After the fight, he called out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

In other results, Sergey Lipinets (11-0, 9 KOs) took out Lenny Zappavigna (35-3, 25 KOs) in the eighth; Erickson Lubin (17-0, 12 KOs) blasted Juan Ubaldo Cabrera (23-2, 15 KOs) out in the second; and Josesito Lopez won a six-round decision over Todd Manuel.