THE DOWNFALL OF ABNER MARES
By Hesiquio Balderas
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 01 Sep 2015
Once upon a time, there was a young, humble kid from Guadalajara, Mexico. The young kid who represented Mexico in the 2000 Olympics and who had a stellar career as a professional capturing world titles in 3 weight division, joining Mexico's Elite in the championship level.
Then as the fictional character Mickey Goldsmith told his pupil Rocky Balboa "You've got Civilized" (in the movie Rocky 3) meaning exactly that, Abner Mares went from the perfect fighter, the perfect young man to the fighter he is now and that resulted in a huge defeat at the hands of Leo Santa Cruz.
Many people from the boxing industry have seen the change in Abner's behavior, as the old story repeats itself over and over, Mares started surrounding himself with different people that made him believe he was unbeatable, superman, a monster in the ring, and everything else that we've since in this very classic boxing movie.
The formerly humble and easy going kid was transformed to an arrogant specimen, a cocky man and despicable individual and he told of himself as an all time great by capturing world title after world title, but he forgot where he came from and how well he was taking care of since the beginning of his career by his manager Frank Espinoza who guided him to the top of the boxing world and made for him outstanding choices along with former promoter Golden Boy Promotions.
Loyalty has never been one of Mares attributes as history has shown, changing trainers left and right, listening to his "friends" and kicking out of his life and career the people who was there from the get go.
"Mares traveled to Mexico and hired a PR guy who knew nothing about boxing and he would get this bad influence and will get many enemies because if this fact".- said one of the most respected and legendaries Mexican boxing writers who elected for his name not be mentioned.
In all is hard not to give Mares credit for his boxing skills and his machismo which he put on display last Saturday in losing to Leo Santa Cruz, but the reality is that Mares is a skillful fighter who was well managed in the past and ever since he left his old management team has been used and abused by his current Promoter/manager.
Mares is the only one to blame, he wanted to follow the wave and ended up as one of the bunch in Al Haymon's crew. He sealed his fate, Abner thinks of himself more of a star than a fighter, he likes to hang around Mexican singers, Mexican regional Banda music and many aspects of his life have translated to his decline as a fighter.
But his decline is barely starting, he was fed to Santa Cruz a favorite son of his current managerial outlet, Mares doesn't seem to get it as he continues with the same road to destruction and the worse is yet to come for the former champion who decided to turn left when everything was right for him.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Hesiquio Balderas.
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