LOS ANGELES_Abner Mares, fighting just a few miles from the Hawaiian Gardens community where he pulled himself from poverty, produced another self-resurrection Saturday night to recapture a featherweight world title.
Mares, 31, outboxed Argentina's Jesus Cuellar, relying on fighting intellect, hand speed and an 11th-round knockdown to take the World Boxing Association featherweight belt by split-decision scores of 117-110, 112-115 and 116-111 at USC's Galen Center.
"I never doubted myself. I felt it in my heart," Mares said of the effort he produced following a 15-month layoff from a title loss to Leo Santa Cruz and a rebuff from the New York State Athletic Commission due to concerns over a surgically repaired left eye.
During the hiatus, Mares (30-2-1), who previously had won belts in the bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight divisions, spent several weeks training away from his family on new trainer Robert Garcia's ranch home in Riverside.
Garcia emphasized the importance of boxing, telling Mares it wasn't in his best interest _ particularly against the heavy-handed Cuellar _ to wage the typical toe-to-toe battles that Mares enjoys by nature.
"That's my coaching. I had the perfect game plan. ... I fought smart tonight and in my last fight I didn't," Mares said, referring to the majority-decision loss to Southern California rival Santa Cruz last year at Staples Center. "I'm so glad to be called a world champion again. It means a great deal to me."
While Cuellar (28-2) sought to set up power punches but landed only 25 percent of his punches (compared to Mares' 35 percent rate), Mares stayed busier with combinations and effectively counterpunched to pile up rounds.
"Cuellar was a little flat," his trainer Freddie Roach said. "Abner had a good start. He moved and he held and it worked. Abner was a better man. I didn't deliver. Garcia did. And that's the bottom line."
A right cross to the face that knocked Cuellar down in the 11th round clinched the outcome on the scorecards of Dave Moretti, who had it 116-11, and Max DeLuca, who had it 117-110. Judge Kermit Bayless had Cuellar ahead, 115-112.
"I'm the champion and that's all that matters," said Mares, adding that he'll be eager to meet the winner of the Jan. 28 Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton rematch or fellow 126-pound champions like Gary Russell Jr. or Lee Selby.
In the co-main event, Jermall Charlo, after months of listening to Julian Williams' saying the super-middleweight champion hadn't fought anyone who justified the wearing of a world title belt, responded with a fifth-round knockout of Williams to defend his International Boxing Federation crown.
"Leading up to this fight, Julian Williams talked, and I held it in," Charlo said. "I did what I had to do to become the champion of the world and I deserve my respect ... . I never disrespected this dude _ never _ until I knocked him out."
The taller Charlo (25-0, 19 knockouts) sent Williams to the canvas earlier in the fifth with a right uppercut squarely on the jaw.
Williams (22-1-1), who had also been sent down by a hard jab to the face in the second, was badly wobbled as he tried to stand in the fifth. Referee Wayne Hedgpeth allowed the fight to continue, but only briefly.
Charlo, of Houston, pounced on the Philadelphia challenger, handing him his first loss with a decisive combination closed by a left to the face that dropped Williams for good 2 minutes 6 seconds into the round.
"I just got caught," a disappointed Williams said.
Promoter Richard Schaefer said he was so impressed with Charlo he was considering asking his former business partner Oscar De La Hoya to agree to stage a Charlo-Canelo Alvarez fight despite a bitter past business split.
Showtime Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza, reacting to Charlo's impressive victory, said, "You start thinking about Golovkin," referring to unbeaten three-division middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
"People have to respect my accomplishments," said Charlo. "He (Williams) just wasn't on my level ... . I knew I was going to win."
