By Allen Fox: IBF bantamweight champion Abner Mares (22-0, 13 KO’s) feels that he’s got it under control in terms of his terrible habit of tagging his opponents low left and right in his fights, and he’s not going to stop throwing to the body even if it means he’ll likely lose points this Saturday night against Joseph Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO’s) in their rematch at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Mares got away with countless low blows in his last fight against Agbeko, and arguably should have disqualified in that fight by the midway point. Instead, referee Russell Mora turned a blind eye to the chronic low blows from Mares and did zero, leaving Agbeko to suffer from one hard shot after another to the groin. If this was the only fight that Mares had done this it wouldn’t be so bad. But in his fight before that, Mares was teeing off all night against Vic Darchinyan with textbook low blows. It was ugly to watch and sad to see Mares losing only point from all the low blows he thew in the fight.

As quoted by Yahoo Sports News, Mares said “I’m a fighter who always likes to go to the body. Agbeko is the kind of fighter who leans down, but you’re not going to see any of that. I’m a perfectionist and I’m definitely going to go to the body. I’m going to throw a lot of body punches. If I see that the ref is saying my punches are low, then I’m going to stop doing it.”

I don’t know why but I don’t believe Mares can control his throwing of low blows. Something about the form he uses when throwing them causes him to naturally dip too low and land to the groin of his opponents. It’s too bad he doesn’t get it, because I really don’t think Mares is going to get away anything on Saturday. As soon as he starts teeing off with the low blows, the point deductions will immediately follow. If Mares refuses to stop throwing to the body, he’ll probably be disqualified for the first time in his career. He’s had his free ride in the last two bouts, and now it’s going to be his time to pay if he can’t control his tendencies.