Mares, 26, says he could have continued fighting if referee Jack Reiss hadn’t pulled a plug on the fight with 5 seconds to go in the round after Mares was knocked down a second time.
Mares said to Radio Raheem “In my head, I was good. If the ref had let me go, the round would have ended. But he didn’t, and I got knocked out…Being smart, I probably won’t take it [the rematch] until next year.”
It would be a good idea for Mares to take the remainder of the year off, because he got hit with a really big shot when he was knocked down for the first time. Mares stood directly in front of Gonzalez with a half minute to go in the round, and got hit with a devastating left hook from Gonzalez that put him down.
I don’t think Mares was expecting Gonzalez to throw anything, because up to that point in the round, Gonzalez had been very economical with his punches. He hadn’t opened up with anything other than one big right hand that caught Mares flush.
That was a healthy shot to that Mares never saw coming until it hit him. The fact that Mares wasn’t able to react quick enough to block Gonzalez’s big power shots wasn’t a good sign. The guys that have beaten Gonzalez in the past where able to block his big power shots, but Mares seemed incapable of doing that last night.
Gonzalez might not hold onto the title for very long if he faces anyone good. He’s one of those fighters that can lose at any given time when he faces contenders. We saw how Daniel Ponce De Leon was able to take Gonzalez’s best shots and punish him last year.
As the champion, Gonzalez won’t be able to take the kinds of weak opponents that he usually fights in between big fights. Gonzalez will have to fight at least one contender in between a rematch with Mares, and hopefully he doesn’t lose that fight and ruin the rematch.
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