By Dan Ambrose: Abner Mares is saying that his title fight against WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will be announced this week, per esnewsreporting. Mares (33-3-1, 15 KOs) vs. Davis (20-0, 19 KOs) is being targeted for next February on Showtime. It’s a match between a young unbeaten champion in 24-year-old Davis facing what once one of the best fighter in boxing in former three division world champion Mares.
There’s still no word whether Davis vs. Mares will be on Showtime pay-per-view. That would be hard sell though given that Mares lost his last fight to WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz by 12 round on June 9, and he’s done nothing since.
A portion of the boxing public wants to see Davis defend against the fading Mares. They don’t care that Mares is past his prime, coming off of a loss to Santa Cruz, and would need to move up one weight class to fight Davis at super featherweight. Mares has never fought at 130 during his 13-year career. Mares has won his world titles at bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight. It’ll be a tough task for Mares to beat a fighter as good as Davis. The casual boxing fans are well familiar with Mares after following many of his important fights throughout his long career.
There are arguably tougher opponents for Davis to fight in his own weight class against Miguel Berchelt, Tevin Farmer, Francisco Vargas, Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman, Alberto Machado and Masayuki Ito. There are a lot of fighters that Davis should be looking to fight instead of Mares. Davis vs. Mares is unquestionably a business level fight rather than a sporting one. Mares would have very little chance of beating Davis. The fight would attract interest based on the casual boxing fans that are familiar with Mares’ name. Mares will be turning 34 in 2019, and that’s an old age for the lighter weight class. He was a good fighter many years ago, but he’s not the same guy that he was seven years ago.
Davis is one of the best fighters in boxing today, but he’s underutilized by his promoters. He fought only once in 2018 in beating Jesus Marcelo Andres Cuellar by a 3rd round knockout. In 2017, Davis fought twice, defeating Jose Pedraza, Liam Walsh and and Francisco Fonseca. Davis needs to be more active with his career to get the most out of it, and he needs to be fighting better opposition than Cuellar and Mares.
