By Jason Kim: Undefeated bantamweight contender Abner Mares (17-0, 10 KOs) continued with his upward climb in the bantamweight division with an impressive 10-round unanimous decision over Jonathan Arias (13-2, 6 KOs) on Friday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. The final judges’ scores were 98-91, 99-89 and 99-89. Mares, 22, a 2004 representative at the 2004 Olympics in Athens for Mexico, dominated every round of the fight and had little problem with slower, weaker-punching Aries. There were no knockdowns in the fight, although Mares had Aries in big trouble in the final 30 seconds of the 10th and final round, staggering him badly and battering him nonstop until the final bell.

The fight perhaps should have been stopped after Mares initially tagged Aries with a huge fight hand that almost decapitated him, sending him flying backwards into the ropes. Aries, however, stood up well under the huge onslaught from Mares, who drove the staggering Aries from one side of the ring to the other. The referee, however, seemed inclined to let the two fight it out until the end of the fight and not take away the small chance that Aries could survive. As it turns out, he made it but he took an awful beating from Mares in the process.

Mares, ranked #8 in the IBF, #10 in the WBA and #12 in the WBC, looked good in the first few rounds, firing off powerful hooks to the body, left-right combinations to the head and chopping right hands. In the early going, Aries fought well, landing almost as much as Mares did, matching him for shot. That said, his power was much less so that Mares, also appearing both slower and much smaller than Mares. It seemed like Mares was fighting at half speed in the first three rounds, looking as if he was taking things slowly in a methodical manner as he studied Aries. Late in the 3rd round, Mares began to step up his power, ripping off huge combinations to head and backing Aries up.

In the 4th round, Aries rallied and appeared on his way to possibly winning the round. However, at the end of the round Mares landed a huge right hand that snapped Aries head back – The punch was big enough to perhaps turn the round in Mares favor.

Mares attacked Aries viciously in the 5th round, blasting him with left hooks to the body and head and constantly backing him up. Unfortunately for Mares, he landed a left hook way low, hurting Aries, leading to the referee deducting a point from Mares for the shot. Mares had been previously warned for punching before a couple of rounds earlier, but it seemed as if the referee was acting somewhat hastily. Normally, a fighter is given two warnings, then a deduction but not in this case.

In rounds six and seven, Mares began to step it a notch, no longer just throwing shots to connect, but rather now putting big power behind his punches. He tagged Aries repeatedly with big right hands, many of which snapped Aries head back. It looked as if Aries wouldn’t be able to last much longer taking those kinds of shots. Just when it seemed like he was on the verge of being stopped, he came back strong in the 8th round and looked good as he backed Mares up with good hooks to the head and body.

The effect seemed to unsettle Mares, who looked uneasy that Aries was not only able to take his shots, but was able to keep coming back at him. Fortunately for Mares, Aries was coming at him with nothing, because if he had any kind of power, he might have been able to cause some serious problems for Mares.

In the final two rounds, Mares futilely attempted to take Aries out with combinations to the head, but none did any real damage until late in the 10th round, when Mares hurt Aries with a long spearing right hand to the head. The punch drove Aries against the ropes, where Mares then began to land machine gun combinations to the head, giving it his best shot to take Aries out. Aries, however, wasn’t giving in, and staggered across the ring like a drunken man, taking shots as he went.

Once he had Aries against the ropes on the opposite side of the ring, Mares continued blasting him with tremendous shots, mixing up his punches from body to head, but somehow Aries, staggering and barely hanging on, was able to make it out of the round without going down.