StubHub Center, Carson, California - WBA "regular" featherweight champion Abner Mares (31-2-1, 16 KOs) won a ten round technical decision over Andres Gutierrez (35-2-1, 25 KOs). The scores were 100-90, 99-91, 99-91.

The fight was stopped in the tenth due to severe cuts on the face of Gutierrez. Initially it appeared to be ruled as a TKO win for Mares, but then it was announced that some of Gutierrez's cuts were caused by head clashes, so they went to the scorecards.

After a layoff of over a year, Mares returned to the ring last December and shocked heavily favored Jesus Cuellar to win the WBA "regular" featherweight title.

Earlier this year, Gutierrez was scheduled to fight former world champion Carl Frampton in Belfast. In a freak accident, Gutierrez slipped in the shower - less than 24 hours before the fight - and suffered several cuts and injuries that forced the contest to get canceled at the late hour.

They started slow in the first minute, but Mares quickly began to unload with combinations on Gutierrez. There wasn't much of a feeling out process, with Mares landing some very solid punches in the first three minutes.

The left eye of Gutierrez was busted open from Mares' hard shots in the second round. Mares began aiming for the eye with big right hands, to open the cut even wider. Gutierrez was trying to make it a more physical battler, but Mares was using his feet and outboxing the challenger with quicker punches.

Mares was still landing solid shots in the third, with Gutierrez providing too easy of a target. Gutierrez did better in the fourth and fifth, but continued to get outworked in the bout. There was more of the same n the sixth and seventh, with Mares landing the bigger and more accurate punches.

It appeared that a second cut had opened up around the left eye of Gutierrez in the eight round, making a lot of blood flow down and he was starting to wipe away the blood from his eye.

While Gutierrez did a little better in the ninth, Mares was really connecting with a lot of punches in the tenth round - on a very bloody Gutierrez, and the ringside doctor finally stopped it during the round when the referee called for some time to examine Gutierrez's damaged face.