Controversy erupts as Abner Mares wins bantamweight belt from Joseph Agbeko

By Case Keefer (contact)

Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011 | 12:30 a.m.

The coronation of new champion Abner Mares turned into a condemnation of referee Russell Mora inside The Joint at the Hard Rock on Saturday night.

Mares (22-0-1) defeated Joseph Agbeko (28-3) to win Showtime’s bantamweight tournament and the IBF championship belt but only after a series of officiating gaffes.

“I am a champion, and I don’t think that was right,” Agbeko said. “I don’t know why I always have to fight two opponents.”

Mares landed as many as 20 low blows against Agbeko without repercussion from Mora. Although Mora warned Mares a few times about the shots, he never used common procedure and deducted a penalty point.

Mora also called two questionable knockdowns in Mares’ favor. Late in the first round, Agbeko appeared to slip but Mora started his count.

In the 11th round, Mares’ most blatant below-the-belt punch landed and sent Agbeko crumbling to the floor. Mora again ruled it as a knockdown, a call that drew outrage almost unanimously from the boxing community.

“Those punches were on the belt line,” Mora said after the fight. “It’s a fair punch. I have to call it fair. It would be unfair to the give the other guy advantages because he says it’s low.”

The judges scored the bout as a majority-decision win for Mares with scores of 115-111, 115-111 and 113-113.

Agbeko was ahead in the 11th round before the ruled knockdown, so it’s conceivable that the low blow resulted in a three-point swing by giving Mares a 10-8 column.

The subtraction of another potential point in the first round for the controversial knockdown and the addition of a penalty mark make it look like the outcome in the fight could have changed.

“That’s the problem with poor officiating,” said Alan Hopper, who spoke on behalf of Don King, Agbeko’s promoter. “We will never know what would have happened had a fairer course of action been taken.”

Hopper and Agbeko demanded an immediate rematch with a different official. Agbeko went as far as to say Mares was a coward if he didn’t accept the bout.

Luckily for Agbeko, Mares seemed more than open to the idea.

“I’ll fight anyone,” Mares said. “Like I told the people from Showtime, if they want to do the whole tournament again, let’s do it. I’m here.”

Demand was expected to build for the winner of Agbeko vs. Mares to meet WBO/WBC bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire in a title unification bout, but the nature of Saturday’s fight seemed to wipe that talk away.

Agbeko feels the fight would have been different without the continuous low blows. Mares doesn’t, and the statistics are on his side. He out-landed Agbeko by a 318-231 margin.

Mares also argued the first knockdown was 100 percent legitimate and wasn’t certain the second one shouldn’t have counted.

“I thought it was on the belt line, but I’ve got to go back and look at it,” Mares said. “Either way, it was not my call. It’s not like I told the ref, ‘Hey ref, help me get a knockdown.’ It was his decision.”

Despite their vitriol, Agbeko and Hopper praised Mares for his performance and said he was not to blame. The below-the-belt shots never appeared intentional but continued for the duration of the match because Mora failed to address the problem.

“The referee is not supposed to decide the champion,” Agbeko said. “He is supposed to give us a fair fight, but he didn’t. It was impossible for him, and I am very upset for that. I don’t think this fight makes Mares a champion — no way.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.