YONNHY PEREZ Drew 12 ABNER MARES

As many thought might be the case, the chief supporting fight overshadowed the man event as Abner Mares rose to the occasion in his scorching 12-rounder with bantam champion Yonnhy Perez on Showtime last Saturday.

The draw might seem appropriate after such a well-fought contest, but I felt that Mares had done enough to win. The crowd at the Staples Center thought so, too, as did the so-called “press row” scorers.

There wasn’t much in it, to be sure, but I had Mares up 115-113. He started fast and closed like an express train, but some shaky rounds in between cost him the verdict.

I agreed with the veteran southern California judge Marty Denkin that Mares won the first two rounds, the sixth and the last four. I was the “Marty Denkin” judge in this fight.

Judge Gwen Adair from southern California, who scored the bout 114-114, gave Mares the first two rounds, the sixth and three of the last four — she had Perez winning the ninth round.

New Jersey judge Eugenia Williams agreed with her colleagues that Mares won the first two rounds and the sixth, and she had him winning three of the last four rounds, with Perez taking the 10th.

I had no doubt that Mares won the ninth and 10th rounds. These seemed like very good rounds for him.

If Gwen Adair had given him the ninth, if Eugenia Williams had seen him come out on top in the 10th, he would be champion today. That is boxing. It can break your heart.

Mares rose to the occasion, magnificently. He boxed and he fought. He moved, jabbed but also put punches together. His right hands to the body and left hooks underneath took some of the steam out of the aggressive and busy Perez.

There were rounds when Mares was back-pedalling and under pressure, but he also backed up Perez and forced him to the ropes.

It was a wonderful fight, the pace so fast that the rounds seemed to flash by.

Perez looked the bigger, stronger man and around about the fifth it looked as if he was going to sweep Mares before him. Yet while Perez was like a punching machine and looked poised to win, Mares had been scoring well enough to keep in the fight. With four rounds remaining, Mares gathered himself and surged forward in a thrilling and impressive closing drive.

This was Perez’s third tough 12-rounder in a row, and gruelling struggles with Silence Mabuza and Joseph Agbeko might have left him a little drained. It is rare in boxing today for a fighter to have three extremely demanding fights in succession. I mentioned this in the preview.

Mares, I think, can come back a better fighter. He now knows that he can go 12 rounds at world championship level and be strong at the finish. I think that a bit of doubt might have crossed Mares’s mind in some of those middle rounds when Perez soaked up his best punches and kept steaming into him, and it seemed to me that he was trying to pace himself as best he could under the onslaught and avoid too many exchanges until such time as he felt confident enough to make another major effort. In the end Mares left it a little too late — at least he did in the eyes of two of the judges.

The main event was in some ways predictable as Rafael Marquez landed precise punches to halt a brave but bloodied Israel Vazquez in the third of their scheduled 12-round featherweight fight. I mentioned in the preview that Vazquez was likely to suffer damage but I didn’t expect him to be sliced over both eyes as early as round three.

This fourth meeting between the Mexican rivals was exciting while it lasted. Vazquez was dangerous for a couple of rounds and a left hook seemed to hurt Marquez in the first round. Indeed, it looked to me as if Marquez’s legs gave way for a moment. The commentators missed the brief wobbly spell but I was thinking that maybe Marquez might have been better off to have stood back and boxed for a few rounds. As it turned out, Marquez knew just what he was doing and he kept pouring in the punches until Vazquez could take no more. A fifth fight won’t be happening: Vazquez’s manager has urged his man to retire.