By Eric Baldwin: WBA World featherweight champion Jesus Andres Cuellar (28-1, 21 KOs) successfully weighed in at 124lbs at today’s weigh-in for his title defense this Saturday night against Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) for their fight on Showtime Championship Boxing at the USC Galen Center, in Los Angeles, California.
Premier Boxing Champions is promoting the show. Mares weighed in at 126lbs. This is going to be a really tough fight for the 31-year-old Mares, because he’s been out of the ring for over a year since his loss to Leo Santa Cruz in August 2015. That was a grueling fight that saw Mares worn down and beaten by a 12 round majority decision by the scores 114-114, 117-111 and 117-111.
(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)
Most boxing fans thought that Mares lost. It’s hard to know what the judge was thinking who scored it 114-114. Whatever the case, Mares failed to get the win. He was out of the ring with eye problems, but he’s now ready to go.
Despite there being only one year that separates the two fighters, the southpaw Cuellar, 30, appears to have much less mileage on him compared to the 31-year-old Mares. Perhaps one of the reasons for that is because of Cuellar’s habit of scoring fast knockouts. He’s knocked out a lot of guys in his career and done it early. Cuellar hasn’t had to take as many shots compared to Mares. If Mares is going to beat Cuellar on Saturday night, then he’s going to need to make sure he doesn’t get hit a lot by him. Cuellar hits too hard for Mares to be taking that kind of punishment. The scar tissue around Mares’ eyes might fall apart from the pounding that he could potentially take in this fight if he doesn’t focus on his boxing. Mares needs to use movement to try and not get hit.
Mares might need to think about moving back down to super bantamweight or preferably bantamweight if he loses to Cuellar. Mares isn’t as good in the featherweight division as he was when he was fighting at bantamweight. If Mares is only fighting at featherweight because it’s a weight class that is easier for him to make, then so be it. He’ll have to stick with it then, ut he would probably do better if he could move back down in weight to bantamweight. Mares was knocked out in the 1st round by Jhonny Gonzalez in 2013. Since then, Mares has won 3 out of his last 4 fights.
Cuellar is a good fighter, but probably not as talented as other featherweight champions Gary Russell Jr. and Oscar Valdez. Those guys would be a handful for Cuellar if those matches were to ever take place, and it’s not likely that they will. Cuellar has a good thing going being the WBA champion. If he were to face Russell Jr. or Valdez, he could wind up being sent back to the contender ranks.
In the weights for the co-feature bout, IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs) weighed in at 153.4lbs for his title defense against unbeaten #1 IBF Julian “J-Rock” Williams (22-0-1, 14 KOs). For his part, Williams, 26, weighed in at 154lbs. Charlo did not look good at the weigh-in. He looked very haggard and weight drained. This is probably the worst Charlo has looked at one of his weigh-ins.
In Charlo’s last fight against Austin Trout, he looked worn out before the weigh-in. He then rehydrated overnight and ended up gassing out during the second half of the fight. Charlo got tired, and Trout was able to come on and almost steal a victory. For the Williams fight, Charlo looks even worse. With the way that Charlo looked today, he might want to think seriously about getting Williams out of there as quick as he can on Saturday night so that he doesn’t wind up wearing down again and possibly getting stopped. Williams looked a lot better today than Charlo. You could tell by looking at Williams that he didn’t struggle at all in making the weight.
Unbeaten light welterweight Sergey Lipinets (10-0, 8 KOs) weighed in at 139.8 for his fight against Leonardo Zappavigna (35-2, 25 KOs). For his part, Zappavigna weighed in at 139.6.
Undefeated middleweight contender Erickson Lubin (16-0, 11 KOs) weighed in at 157lbs for his fight against Juan Ubaldo Cabrera (23-1, 15 KOs). Cabrera weighed in at 159lbs.
Lubin looks like a good fighter. He’s got heavy hands and a lot of talent. However, Lubins’ flat-footed fighting style and less than quick hands could doom him when he eventually starts fighting better fighters. But with Lubin’s youth, he’ll likely still wind up winning a world title or two before his career is over. I doubt that Lubin will be able to hold onto a world title for any length of time unless he’s matched carefully. He’s too flawed for him to be a long time champion in the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin type mold. It’ll be interesting to see how Lubin deals with Cabrera on Saturday night. This fight should give a pretty good hint how far Lubin will go in boxing.
Official weights for Showtime’s broadcast:
Jesus Andres Cuellar 124 vs Abner Mares 126
Jermall Charlo 153.4 vs Julian Williams 154
Erickson Lubin 157 vs Juan Ubaldo Cabrera 159
Sergey Lipinets 139.8lbs vs. Leonardo Zappavigna 139.6.