07.09.07 – By Gary Jones: Bantamweight prospect Abner Mares (14-0, 9 KOs) stopped former WBO flyweight boxing champion Ididro Garcia (24-4-2, 8 KOs) to win the vacant NABF bantamweight title on Friday night at the Desert Diamond Casino, in Tucson, Arizona. Mares, 21, a former 2004 Olympian for the Mexican team, totally outclassed the 31-year old Garcia, who was moving up two divisions to take on Mares. Both fighters traded toe-to-toe for seven rounds until the fight was stopped at the end of the 7th round, when Garcia’s corner stopped the fight due to swelling of his left eye..
Mares, ranked #14 in the WBA, was matched tough by facing Garcia, who at 31 may be on the downside of his career, but he still has a lot left in his tank as he showed against Mares early on.
Both fighters matched each other shot for shot in the first five rounds of the fight, though Mares, the naturally bigger of the two, had a little more on his punches than Garcia but not by much. At every turn, Garcia pursued Mares, attempting to trap him for an inside exchange. However, Mares stayed on the move, enabling him to throw shots and then quickly get out of the way of the smaller Garcia.
Still, Garcia landed a lot of shots in the first five rounds, especially head shots. In return, however, Mares was unloading a lot of punches himself, and showing little effects from the many punches he had been hit with by Garcia. Indeed, Mares looked completely fresh, showing no signs of swelling despite being hit by countless punches to the head. Garcia, however, began to show swelling around his left eye by the fourth round, which looked as if it might close if the fight were to go into the late rounds.
By the sixth round, Garcia started to show the effects of all the punishment that had been dished out by Mares, looking tired and with a swollen left eye which had worsened by this point. No longer was Garcia able to match Mares punch for punch like in the earlier rounds. Now, Garcia was getting hit almost at will by Mares, who began to time Garcia and land huge right hand shots that had the crowd roaring with approval.
Garcia continued to pursue Mares around the ring, but was rarely rewarded for his efforts. Mostly, however, Garcia looked old, and beaten. The contrast between him and the youthful Mares was shocking by this point in the fight, because Mares looked like he was only starting to warm up, whereas Garcia looked like he’d gone through a terrible war.
In the seventh round, Mares really began to unload right hands which looked like they had been released by a sling shot. Garcia still was able to fight back, but more and more, he was getting completely taken apart by Mares. Near the end of the round, Mares landed a series of right hand volleys that landed with such a hard impact that it was knocking Garcia off balance, causing him to stumble backwards a couple steps. Immediately after the seventh round ended, Garcia’s corner stopped the fight as he walked back to his corner.