By Paul Strauss: How many times have you witnessed a fighter get his clock cleaned only to make excuses afterward ranging from, “The sun was in my eyes” to “My porridge was tainted”. Not so with Eric Morel. He flat out stated Mares was a better fighter, not only Saturday night at the Don Haskins Convention Center, El Paso, TX, but even if he was ten years younger and in his prime. “He’s a great fighter” said the still scrappy 36 year old Morel 46-2-0 23 (23 KO’s). Anyone (of the top guys) out there will have trouble with him.
Going into Saturday night’s matchup between the two, there were some who thought Morel, the former champion, might still be skilled enough to keep his excellent jab in Mares’ face all night, as well as mobile enough to keep away from Abner’s body attack. That proved to be the case only occasionally. Most of the time Abner was all over Morel in every way a fighter can be.
Abner is so much fun to watch. He attacks with purpose, but in such a varied fashion. He overwhelms opponents. They don’t know how to defend against him. His punches come in the form of jabs, multiple jabs, hooks off the jab, straight rights, looping rights, uppercuts, body shots behind the elbow, on the elbow, and right up the middle. He punches in combinations, staying on top of the retreating opponent. There is no being out of range with him. Just when his opponent thinks that’s the case, he’s eating leather.
Abner had Morel shook up several times in the fight. Often times it started with a big, long range, looping overhand right hand. But, the first hard wobbler came early in the form of a beautiful left hook. Morel’s legs buckled, but he refused to go down. Gradually he recovered, due in a big way to his experience.
There were times in the fight when Abner would relax just a bit here and there, just as every fighter must, and Morel would pounce with his own good right hands. Later in the fight, he also found a nice home for the uppercut, which busted up Abner’s nose and bloodied his mouth, but in the long run it just wasn’t enough to turn the tide. Abner just kept rolling along with his assault, bobbing and weaving, slipping and blocking as he kept up the pressure..
To Morel it must have felt like he was the commander of an outnumbered army. He just had too many spots to defend and not enough troops with which to do it. His troops fired back, but they just didn’t have enough guns or ammunition to win the war. A battle or two here and there would go their way, but they were taking a lot of casualties (the head, the kidneys, the ribs, and his left ear in particular). Their retreat (time between rounds) was not enough time to rest up and recover. Reaching down and pulling up your socks time was just not going to get it done in this war. What was needed was a telling cannon shot that might turn things around. It didn’t come.
Morel kept the fight exciting, up to and including the last round, but at the same time he was getting shutout, or at least close to it. One of the three judges scored it just that way, a shutout, and the other two gave Morel a round. Abner Mares now has the WBC Super Bantamweight Title, to go along with his IBF Bantamweight and WBC Silver Bantamweight titles, and this undefeated 26 year old is just coming into his prime. On this particular night, former champion Antonio Tarver said it best, “Whatever Morel starts, Mares finishes!”
In other action on the card:
Anselmo Moreno TKO 9 David de la Mora
Rowland Bryant TKO 3 Librado Andrade
Luis Ramos Jr. UD 10 Daniel Attah
Francisco Vargas TKO 3 Rafael Lora