Video: Abner Mares: If you ask me, I’ll fight Jhonny Gonzalez right now

If you ask me, I’ll fight him right now. Now that I have a good coach, a good trainer in Virgil Hunter, I’ll have to wait to see what he says. But me as a fighter, yes I’ll fight him already.

Abner Mares bounced back from the first loss of his career and overcame the adversity of a cut on his left eyelid with a unanimous decision victory over Jonathan Oquendo, scored 96-94, 98-92 twice.

Mares suffered the cut from a punch in the fourth round, but his cut man, “Jacob “Stitch” Duran did a tremendous job of closing the gash and preventing it from affecting his fighter. Fighting for the first time with renowned trainer and defensive specialist Virgil Hunter, Mares fought intelligently throughout the bout. The three-division world champion prevented Oquendo from inflicting damage inside, utilized solid footwork and was extremely efficient.

Mares landed 49 percent of his power punches, doubling up Oquendo (24 percent), who failed to make adjustments and didn’t throw enough jabs to put himself in a position to land power shots.