Abner Mares doesn’t feel the need to prove anything or supplement his income. The former three-division champion-turned-Showtime broadcaster is returning to the ring after more than four years away simply because he wants to.
And if things don’t go well against Miguel Flores on Sept. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles? The 36-year-old Angeleno said emphatically that he’ll walk away for good.
Mares’ mantra in the lead-up to his meeting with Flores and fight night itself is to enjoy the moment. The bottom line for him: He loves boxing and misses it.
“I always knew I was going to fight again,” Mares told me and co-host Kenneth Bouhairie on The PBC Podcase. “… As a commentator, an analyst I was sitting behind a desk seeing fights, building emotion. … I’m going back to when [Gervonta] Davis fought [Mario] Barrios [in June of last year]. I said then it’s time.
“I’ve been getting ready ever since. I’ve been to the gym twice, three times a week. And I got cleared [to fight] by the doctors early this year.”
Mares (31-3-1, 15 KOs) needed that clearance because of a specific injury that has plagued him at different junctures of his career: detached retinas.
The retina of his left eye became detached in 2008, after which he took almost a year off but returned to have his best years in the sport. The right eye was damaged in early 2019, when he was training to fight Davis. Of course, he had to pull out of the event.
The second injury has healed, which has allowed him to make his comeback.
“They all voted in favor of me getting my license back,” said Mares, referring to the decision of the California State Athletic Commission. “… I’ve seen my doctor at least once or twice a month. Everything is good. This is exactly his words. He said, ‘Abner, you have the same risk as any other human being, any other fighter stepping into that ring, to get a detached retina.’”
That doesn’t mean that the rest of his body was in prime condition when he started sparring again about a year ago.
That means he had gone around two years without taking a punch to the face or body. I asked him on the podcast how he felt during that first sparring session. His response: both bad and good.
“I felt like a novice,” he said with a laugh. “… I stepped into the ring throwing punches and I’m just swimming. I was tired, my timing was off, it was just bad. But if you have a strong mind you just know it’s part of it. … It felt good that I got punched again.
“It might sound weird or funny to you guys but it feels great because I’ve done this my whole life. It’s what I know, what I feel, what I’m accustomed to.”
Mares chose not to fight a top-tier opponent in his comeback fight for a reason: Just like the rest of us, he wants to see what he has left as a 130- or 135-pounder.
He feels strong after a resuming regular training. The stamina, the timing, the ability to take a punch, it’s all back, which gives him confidence that on Sept. 4 he’ll look a lot like the fighter who defeated so many elite opponents in the 2010s and beyond.
At the same time, he acknowledges that he won’t know for sure until he and Flores (25-4, 12 KOs) start exchanging punches.
“I’m going to take it fight by fight,” he said. “How I look in my comeback fight will determine my next opponent and what I do next. I will say this … if I look like s—, I am retiring, bro. I’ll say that right now. That’s honest to God. … I’m coming back, like I said, because I want to and I can.
“But if I come back and don’t look like I can [do this] anymore and my body isn’t reacting, that’s when you should say, ‘It’s time to hang ’em up.’ It’s as simple as that.”