Boxing Preview: Yhonny Perez vs. Joseph Agbeko 2

Tonight, the bantamweight division gets it’s own tournament at Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington as Yhonny Perez rematches Joseph Agbeko and Vic Darchinyan squares off with Abner Mares.

Perez, 20-0-1 (14), won the IBF title from Agbeko, 27-2 (22), when the pair initially fought a year ago as Colombian native Perez simply outboxed the tough Ghanaian, securing a points verdict after 12 rounds, dropping Agbeko in the tenth frame.

Agbeko has vowed to produce a performance equal to his IBF title winning upset of Darchinyan 15 months ago but he’ll likely have to catch the quicker Perez and at least floor the champion if he is to regian his old belt.

Perez, who was held to a draw against Mares in May, can’t afford a similar lapse in focus and must avoid the kind of slugfest that Agbeko will try to force.

In the second bout, Darchinyan, 35-2-1 (27), should have his hands full against Mares, 20-0-1 (13), who at 25 is nine years younger than the Australian based southpaw, in their clash for the IBO belt and WBC silver crown.

Darchinyan will be looking to KO his Mexican adversary, who is the sharper boxer here, and will definitely have the edge in experience.

But the “Raging Bull” has been outboxed before and Mares will be out to perform the same trick.

The undercard features ex-WBA flyweight champion Eric Morel, 42-2 (21), against veteran Juan Jose Beltran, 23-18-3 (14), in a ten rounder and a vacant NABO super flyweight contest between Cesar Seda, 19-0 (14), and Ernie Marquez, 9-7-1 (3).