(Photo: Showtime) By Eric Thomas: WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares (25-0-1, 14 KO’s) emerged victorious on Saturday night with a 12 round unanimous decision win over WBA World bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno (33-2-1, 12 KO’s) in a fight that was for Mares’ World Boxing Council 122 pound title at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Mares was given credit for a blown call by referee Raul Caiz Jr., who credited Mares with a knockdown in the 5th round despite Mares having landed only a shot to Moreno’s buttocks. Caiz Jr. also took a point away from Moreno for pulling down on Mares’ head in the 11th round, but failed to take points away for Mares for his numerous low blows landed in the fight.

As it turns out the blown knockdown and point deduction wasn’t what won the fight for Mares. He did appear to win the fight, but not by a whole lot. The judges scored the fight 116-110, 116-110 and 120-106. The judge that scored the fight 120-106 didn’t give Moreno much credit for anything in the fight.

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IBF bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (22-0-1, 13 KO’s0 defeated Victor Zaleta (20-3-1, 10 KO’s) by a 9th round knockout. The fight was stopped at 1:42 of the round. Santa Cruiz put Zaleta down with a straight right hand that hit Zaleta on the top of the head while he was rushing forward to try and land one of his own shots. Zaleta was too hurt to continue fighting and the bout was stopped. Zaleta down two two other times in the fight from hard left hooks to the midsection from Santa Cruz in the 4th and 7th rounds.

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Junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo (21-2, 18 KO’s) looked really powerful in stopping Raul Casarez (19-3, 9 KO’s) in the 1st round after hitting him with a left hook that snapped his head back sending him to the canvas where the fight was immediately stopped at 0:56 of the round. Casarez and Angulo both threw left hooks at the same time, but Angulo’s shot got there ahead of Cazarez’s punch. Angulo looked pretty good but still looked slower and not quite as good as he had in the past. Angulo hadn’t fought since December of last year after spending 8 months in an immigration detention center in El Cerrito, California.

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Fighting for only the second time in the U.S, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (25-0, 12 KO’s) battered replacement opponent Shawn Hawk (22-3-1, 16 KO’s) into the canvas in stopping him in an 8th round stoppage. Cleverly thew a ton of punches as he seemed to be working hard to impress the American public. However, it wasn’t until he refocused his energy into throwing body punches in the 7th that he was finally able to find a great deal of success. Cleverly knocked Hawk down twice in the 7th and then a couple more times in the 8th to get the stoppage at 1:53 of the round.

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Other boxing action on the card:

Isaac Torres MD 4 David Reyes
Robert Easter TKO 2 Eddie Corona
Luis Arias UD 4 Josh Thorpe
Christopher Pearson KO 1 Jeremy Marts
Alonso Loeza TKO 4 Zachary Wohlman
Antonio Orozco KO 6 Danny Escobar