Bantamweight Tournament Photos

Showtime Bantamweight Tournament Photos: Vic Darchinyan, Abner Mares, Joseph Agbeko & Yonnhy Perez

The exciting bantamweight tournament put together in part by Showtime featured four of the top fighters in the weight division, with Vic Darchinyan, Abner Mares, Joseph Agbeko and Yonnhy Perez all taking place. Here, you can see a collection of photographs and images from the Showtime bantamweight tournament, and the fights, training camps and more from the events.

All of the fighters had some kind of history heading into the event. Agbeko had defeated Darchinyan, and Perez had defeated Agbeko. Perez and Mares had also fought to a draw. In the semifinals of the tournament, Mares beat Darchinyan in a close and tough battle, and Agbeko evened the score against Perez and won back his title. That set up the finals which will feature Mares vs. Agbeko, and will be held in 2011.

Unfortunately, that had to be postponed after Agbeko collapsed and the fight was put off. Darchinyan still met Perez however, and got back into the winning column against a drained looking Perez. He’s now still in good position to land a title shot or another big fight, and hopefully Mares vs. Agbeko takes place in a short amount of time.

It finally did take place in August, about four months later, and what resulted was an exciting, back and forth encounter. However, Abgeko-Mares was also filled with controversy. Mares repeatedly had hit Agbeko with low blows, and the ref did nothing about it. He actually called one low blow a knockdown, and his actions changed not only the way the fight was fought, but also made a huge impact on the close scorecards. When the final verdict came in, Mares had won by a razor thin majority decision.

Above, you can take a look at all of the bantamweight tournament photographs including these fighters and the events and fights that they were a part of. Enjoy, and congratulations to the new winner of the Showtime bantamweight tournament, Abner Mares.