Mares wins snoozer; Vargas TKOs Juanma in 3; Herrera wins WBA interim 140lb belt

By Butch Gottlieb and Miguel Maravilla at ringside

Former three division world champion Abner Mares (27-1-1, 14 KOs) returned from his KO loss to Jhonny Gonzalez 11 months ago to outpoint Jonathan “Polvo” Oquendo (24-4, 16 KOs) in a rather dull ten round super featherweight bout. Mares, now with trainer Viril Hunter in his corner, was cut over the left eye in round four and referee Kenny Bayless ruled the cut was caused by a punch. Mares, however, then outboxed Oquendo the rest of the fight. Scores were 96-94, 98-92, 98-92.

2008 Mexican Olympian Francisco “El Bandido” Vargas (20-0-1, 14 KOs) scored a third round TKO over former two-division world champion Juanma Lopez (34-4, 31 KOs) in a super featherweight bout. Vargas staggered and dropped the game but smaller Lopez in a wild round three as both fighters went to-to-toe. Lopez’ corner stopped the bout between rounds. Read full Story>>>

Juan Manuel Lopez talks Francisco Vargas fight

Kelly Swanson

Thanks, everybody for joining us today on the call. We do have a super undercard to talk about, the undercard for Canelo vs. Lara PPV on Saturday, July 12th. And we have four of the fighters on that card joining us today, along with Oscar De La Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions.

Before I get to that just a quick program note that I just got, Showtime’s All Access Canelo vs. Lara, the first segment will be Friday, June 27th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time. So just please make note of that. And for this call today we are going to start with the opening Pay-Per-View bout, which is between Johan Perez and Mauricio Herrera.

I’m going to turn it over to Oscar to make the introduction, and then when we’re done with the questions for Perez and Herrera we will then move on to Juan Manuel Lopez and Francisco Vargas. So, Oscar, please. Read full Story...