Mares must fight Terrazaz next, says Sulaiman

By Boxing News - 01/30/2013 - Comments

mares34By Chris Williams: WBC president Jose Sulaiman is giving WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares (25-0, 13 KO’s) put to face his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Victor Terrazaz (36-2-1, 21 KO’s) next instead of the fight that Mares badly wants against WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire. Sulaiman says Mares has to take the fight next.

Sulaiman said to wbcboxing.com “Mares is becoming an idol. He doesn’t need to fight against Nonito. He’s the WBC champion and has to fulfill his mandatory against Victor Terrazaz.”

Normally I would see this as case of Sulaiman trying to protect Mares from a potential defeat at the hands of Donaire, but I happen to agree with him here. Mares really doesn’t need the Donaire fight for him to continue to get more popular to where he’ll end up a bigger name than Donaire can ever hope to be.

Instead of Mares trying to chase Donaire, it will be the other way around of Mares continues to defend his WBC title against all challengers.

Mares is better off letting Donaire fight the guys his promoter Bob Arum digs up for him, while Mares faces the opposition finds for him. I’d be willing to bet that the Mares will be a much bigger name than Donaire within a couple of years.

Mares has a big Mexican fan base, and he can become an even bigger star if he just keeps plugging along and beating all the top super bantamweights. But I wouldn’t waste time having Mares fight Donaire because Mares will have to take the short money because Donaire is the older fighter and has been around longer, and he’s got a little bit bigger fan base right now. That’s why I think Mares should let forget about Donaire until he’s popular enough to get a 50-50 deal, if not better with him. Why take the short money when you’re going to be more popular than him some day?

Terrazaz is a pretty good fighter with wins over Fernando Montiel and Nehmar Cemeno. He’s no easy out for Mares because he can punch, and he’s got an aggressive style of fighting that will make this a war for Mares. I see this as potentially as a harder fight for Mares than his last fight against Anselmo Moreno.



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