Rafael's remarks: Mares is really coming into his own, isn't he? At bantamweight, the 2004 Mexican Olympian survived a grueling four-fight run, which included a debatable draw with Yonnhy Perez, a decision in a bloodbath against Vic Darchinyan and then two tough wins against Joseph Agbeko (including winning a title and the four-man Showtime tournament in their first bout). Mares then decided to move up in weight, and the 26-year-old from Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., was matched with Morel, 36, a former flyweight titlist and 1996 U.S. Olympian originally from Puerto Rico. It looked like a mismatch on paper and even though, to his credit, Morel showed as much spark as he has in a long time, it was not much of a competitive fight. One reason is because Mares is that good. Morel gave it his all in perhaps the most crowd-pleasing fight of his career, but Mares was just too young, too strong, too quick and too determined. He won every round on two scorecards and 11 out of 12 on the third.

Mares took it to Morel from the outset. He rocked him with right hands and body shots early and often and opened a cut over his left eye. Morel did land some shots, though, which is why, by the seventh round, Mares was bleeding from his nose. While Morel showed the kind of spirit he had never shown before, Mares was way busier and more accurate with his punches. That was the difference in the fight as he landed 333 of 780 punches (43 percent), while Morel connected on 135 of 565 blows (24 percent). Morel was never in danger of being stopped and never stopped trying to win, but Mares poured it on in round after round in the Showtime main event. Even with the fight way out of reach, Morel gave it everything he had in the 12th round, but Mares was just the much better man.

With a fight with Nonito Donaire -- who was also a recent bantamweight champion who moved up to junior featherweight (and won a vacant belt in February) -- unlikely because of the never-ending cold war between Golden Boy (Mares' promoter) and Top Rank (Donaire's), the more likely match for Mares is against bantamweight titlist Anselmo Moreno, who retained his title in a dominant win on the undercard. That could be a very interesting fight matching the aggressive, brawling Mares against the more controlled and technical Moreno.

Rafael's remarks: Moreno has been one of the best bantamweights in the world -- if not the best -- for the past few years but is only now beginning to be noticed in the United States now that he is fighting here. This lopsided destruction should further his cause. Moreno, 26, of Panama, made the 10th defense of his title in dominant fashion as he blitzed Mexico's De La Mora, 23, in a fight that was never competitive. Moreno had defended his title in Germany, Panama, France and Venezuela but finally came to the United States in December after ironing out a messy managerial situation and signing with Golden Boy Promotions. In his first fight in the U.S., Moreno, a slick southpaw with tremendous skills but a sometimes boring style, easily outpointed slugger and former two-division titlist Vic Darchinyan. That fight was on the undercard of an Abner Mares bantamweight title defense.

Moreno was again on a Mares undercard as Mares moved up to junior featherweight to win a belt in the main event. But since Mares and Moreno are both with Golden Boy, there is a good possibility that Moreno too will move up in weight and face Mares. But first Moreno had to dispatch De La Mora and he had little issue, scoring two knockdowns and making him quit. Moreno, who turned pro when he was only 16, dropped De La Mora with a right hook to the head in the second round. He landed numerous right hooks throughout the bout. In the sixth round, it was a left hand to the body that sent De La Mora to the canvas for a second time. De La Mora had nothing to offer and was taking a pounding as the fight wore on. Finally, De La Mora quit on his stool 10 seconds into the ninth round, preferring not to eat any more shots. Moreno was extremely accurate with his punches. According to CompuBox statistics, he landed 162 of 358 punches (45 percent) while De La Mora was limited to connecting on 47 of 255 blows (18 percent).

Rafael's remarks: In the main bout of the Showtime Extreme telecast of the preliminary bouts, Andrade's career as even a fringe contender probably came to an end at the hands of the unheralded Bryant, 32, of Orlando, Fla., who scored the upset. For years Andrade, 33, a native of Mexico living in La Habra, Calif., was a top super middleweight contender. He even got three shots at world titles but lost twice to Lucian Bute (once by a body-shot knockout) and also to Mikkel Kessler. Bryant, who trains with Bute, was taking a big step up in competition against Andrade and scored the career-best victory.

The drama began when Andrade suffered a bad cut over his left eye from an accidental head clash in the waning moments of the first round. The blood seemed to bother Andrade, although he was still winning through the first two rounds. But with about a minute left in the third round, Bryant stopped Andrade in his tracks with a flush right hand to the chin. And then Bryant landed another. And another. And another. He landed several right hands as a shaky Andrade backed into the ropes and referee Robert Velez jumped in to save him at 2 minutes, 19 seconds. It was surprising because Andrade has always been known for having a great chin. But Bryant dented it and never stopped throwing.

Also on the Showtime Extreme portion of the card, Santa Ana, Calif., lightweight prospect Luis Ramos Jr. (22-0, 9 KOs), 23, scored a near-shutout of Washington, D.C.-based Nigeria native Daniel Attah (26-10-1, 9 KOs), 35, a former title challenger who lost his third fight in a row. Scores were 100-89, 99-90, 99-90. Junior lightweight prospect Francisco Vargas (10-0-1, 7 KOs), 27, a 2008 Mexican Olympian who recently signed with Golden Boy, stopped Dominican Republic native Rafael Lora (11-8, 5 KOs), 26, of Irvington, N.J., when his corner threw in the towel at 2 minutes, 27 seconds of the third round of a one-sided fight. The win was Vargas' second in three weeks.

Rafael's remarks: Mijares, 30, of Mexico, was a unified junior bantamweight titleholder when he faced Vic Darchinyan in a further unification bout and got destroyed over nine rounds in 2008. It was the first of three consecutive losses for Mijares, who was left for dead by most. But now he has won nine consecutive fights including this dismantling of Julio, 34, of Colombia, who was supposed to provide Mijares with an easy night at the office so as to not interfere with his likely next fight. That could be a shot at junior featherweight titleholder and pound-for-pound star Nonito Donaire on July 21. Top Rank, Donaire's promoter, is in talks with HBO about the fight. If it is finalized, Mijares, a southpaw, did his part by taking apart Julio, who lost for the third time in four fights (each loss coming by knockout). Mijares dominated the fight. He nailed Julio to the head and body with both hands. Julio was game but in way over his head. Late in the fourth round, Mijares landed a left uppercut that sent Julio staggering into the ropes. Mijares followed with a combination and dropped Julio flat on his back and referee Rafael Saldana counted him out at 2 minutes, 47 seconds.

Also on the TV Azteca card, lightweight Marvin Quintero (25-3, 21 KOs), 25, of Mexico, stopped the Philippines' Al Sabaupan (18-1-1, 13 KOs), 23, in the ninth round to become the mandatory challenger for titleholder Miguel Vazquez. Quintero, who has been stopped in all of his losses, won his fifth fight in a row.

Rafael's remarks: DeGale, 26, of England, was a 2008 Olympic gold medalist and a rising contender. Sanavia, 37, of Italy, is a non-threatening puncher who has seen better days even though he once held a word title (for four months in 2004) and is a former European middleweight and super middleweight champion. The disparity of where they are in their careers added up to a DeGale victory, even if it came in an even easier fashion than many would have imagined. This was all DeGale, who was making the first defense of the European title he won in October via majority decision against Poland's Piotr Wilczewski and fighting for the second time since losing a majority decision to rival George Groves in May 2011.

DeGale was better in every way than fellow southpaw Sanavia, whose one moment of success came when he landed a right hand to DeGale's chin in the final seconds of the third round. It forced DeGale to touch his right glove to the canvas. However, referee Manuel Oliver Palomo did not rule a knockdown, perhaps because DeGale simultaneously tripped over an advertising bumper on the ring apron. In the fourth round, DeGale put Sanavia away in convincing fashion with four knockdowns. He dropped Sanavia three times in quick succession in the middle of the round, mainly with left hands. Sanavia did not appear very hurt on any of them, but his old legs were clearly giving way. DeGale dropped him again with a series of body shots and Palomo called off the fight at 2 minutes, 58 seconds.

Rafael's remarks: In August, Balzsay, a 32-year-old southpaw from Hungary living in Germany, traveled to Ukraine and won a split decision against hometown fighter Stanyslav Kashtanov to claim the pointless WBA "regular" title, even though we all know that Andre Ward is the legit champion. In any event, it means something to Balzsay, his handlers and, presumably, a few of his fans, so he made his first defense of the low-rent strap against Sartison, 32, a native of Kazakhstan living in Germany, who had previously held the second-tier belt until being stripped last year while injured. It had been a back-and-forth fight until Balzsay finished Sartison in the final round. He knocked him down and was hammering him during a follow-up attack when referee Mikael Hook stepped in with 35 seconds left in the fight.

Rafael's remarks: It is sad that a fight like this was even made, as Chakhkiev, 29, a 2008 Russian Olympic heavyweight gold medalist, destroyed long-faded one-time super middleweight prospect Codrington of New York. Chakhkiev knocked out Codrington, 27, who has been plagued by a china chin, at 1 minute, 56 seconds of the opening round of a brutal mismatch. He dropped Codrington twice in what was only Codrington's third fight since he lost via eighth-round knockout in a vicious brawl with Sakio Bika in the 2007 final of "The Contender" reality series. Codrington is also remembered for being slaughtered in 18 seconds by Allan Green in the consensus 2005 knockout of the year.

Universum also kept most of the rest of its stable busy on the undercard, including former light heavyweight titlist Jürgen Brähmer and former heavyweight titlist Ruslan Chagaev. Brähmer (38-2, 30 KOs), 33, of Germany, rolled to a lopsided decision (99-92, 98-91, 97-92) against Vikapita Meroro (21-4, 9 KOs), of Namibia, including scoring a fourth-round knockdown. Chagaev (29-2-1, 18 KOs), 33, a native of Uzbekistan based in Germany, dropped American journeyman Billy Zumbrun (25-13-1, 15 KOs), 39, twice in the third round en route to a knockout at 1 minute, 26 seconds of the third round.

Rafael's remarks: In October, Narvaez, 36, of Argentina, came to New York for the opportunity of a lifetime -- to challenge bantamweight champion and rising pound-for-pound star Nonito Donaire in an HBO main event. But instead of trying to win, Narvaez took the money and ran. He refused to engage and was outclassed in losing a shutout decision in disgraceful fashion.

Narvaez did not seem to care much, though. He still had his junior bantamweight title to fall back. He returned to Argentina to fight for the first time since the Donaire debacle and cruised to his fourth title defense against Cabrera, 25, of Mexico. Narvaez, who previously had made 16 flyweight title defenses before vacating to move up in weight, dominated Cabrera for the near-shutout victory. Referee Jose Hiram Rivera docked points from Cabrera in the eighth and 10th rounds, including for a head butt that cut Narvaez.

Rafael's remarks: Cotto, the 34-year-old older brother of star junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto, was supposed to face former lightweight titlist Jose Luis Castillo on March 24 on the Danny Garcia-Erik Morales undercard in Houston. However, Castillo failed to make weight and refused to lose the extra pounds. Since Cotto was already at a deficit going up in weight in the first place, he declined to fight Castillo and the bout was called off. So this main event on Telefutura's "Solo Boxeo Tecate" was arranged for him in his hometown.

It looked as though Cotto was going to make it an early night against his Puerto Rican countryman Cruz, 24, when he dropped Cruz twice inside the first two minutes of the fight. First Cotto dropped Cruz very hard with a left hook to the jaw. Cruz was very shaky when he reached his feet to barely beat the count and was down almost instantly when the fight resumed from a right hand. He sunk to his knees in the center of the ring, clearly still hurt from the first knockdown. But give Cruz a lot of credit; he not only got up and made it out of the round, he got himself together enough to go the distance, although granted, in a one-sided points defeat. Cotto kept after him throughout the fight but simply could not put him away. Cotto had not fought since losing a lopsided decision to Paulie Malignaggi last April but he looked fairly sharp considering the long layoff. Cruz is now 2-3 in his last five fights.

Rafael's remarks: Taylor, the former undisputed middleweight champion, suffered a horrific 12th-round knockout loss to Arthur Abraham in the opening stage of the Super Six World Boxing Classic in October 2009. Taylor suffered a small brain bleed as a result of the knockout, dropped out of the tournament and walked away from boxing. But after undergoing numerous medical tests and agreeing to return to middleweight rather than keep fighting at super middleweight (where he did not belong), Taylor made his return in December following 26 months out of the ring to stop Jesse Nicklow in the eighth round. Returning for the second time in his comeback and again headlining Showtime's "ShoBox: The New Generation," Taylor, 33, of Little Rock, Ark., took a small step up in competition against the untested Truax, 28, of Osseo, Minn.

Although Taylor won a lopsided decision, all is not well. He and his team, including promoter Lou DiBella, adviser Al Haymon and trainer Pat Burns, are going to have to seriously discuss what Taylor's plan should be going forward. The reason is because Taylor, although the clear winner, looked very shaky. He looked slow, his punches lacked snap and, oh yeah, there was that hard knockdown courtesy of a clean right hand from Truax in the ninth round. The good news is that Taylor survived the knockdown and made it through the remaining two minutes or so of the round. The bad news is that the knockdown is a big cause for concern, as was how he fought the rest of the fight against the kind of opponent he would once have taken out with ease.

In his postfight interview, Taylor was extremely jacked up and seemingly excited that he had been knocked down and survived. It was a weird interview, because who gets excited about nearly being knocked out? Anyway, good for Taylor, who has been brutally knocked out in three of his four losses, to show the resolve to survive. But let's be honest: Does anyone really think this comeback is going to lead anywhere other than to Taylor eventually suffering another bad knockout loss?

Rafael's remarks: Lara, who might very well be the best 154-pounder in the world, blew away Hearns, whose chin is even more suspect than that of his all-time-great father, Thomas Hearns. Lara had not fought since last July. That is when he was robbed of a win against Paul Williams in a majority decision so utterly putrid that the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board suspended the three judges for bad scoring. For no apparent reason, Golden Boy and the networks put Lara on ice for the rest of the year. He was supposed to fight Hearns in February but the bout was delayed because it was scheduled to be on the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto undercard. When that fight was postponed until June, Lara-Hearns was put on the Jermain Taylor-Caleb Truax undercard on Showtime's "ShoBox: The New Generation."

It turned out to be a very long wait for what turned out to be a very quick fight as Lara, 29, a former Cuban amateur star now living in Houston, destroyed Hearns, 33, of Detroit, in just 94 seconds. This was a pure demolition. Hearns carries his hands way too low and Lara, a southpaw, made him pay for it, landing a sweet straight left hand over Hearns' dangling right that dropped him hard. Hearns made it to his feet quickly, but he was shaky. Lara attacked quickly, ripping him with three consecutive left hands that had him falling into the ropes, which forced referee Keith Hughes to call a knockdown since the ropes had clearly held him up. And then came the violent ending as Lara pounded him with two more clean left hands that knocked Hearns out. With Hearns down along the ropes, Hughes did not bother to count, calling it off at 1 minute, 34 seconds. Hearns was down for a couple of minutes before collecting himself as he lost his second fight in a row by knockout. Fourteen months ago, Hearns went to Germany and got knocked out in the seventh round by Felix Sturm in a middleweight title bout. Now the question is who will dare step into the ring with Lara? He does not bring a lot of money to the table and he is extremely dangerous. He will need promoter Golden Boy to press the issue with the networks or the sanctioning bodies to put him into a meaningful fight, although there is no way Golden Boy would dare serve up Mexican star titleholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez to him.

Rafael's remarks: Stevenson is a classic late bloomer. He is already 34 but only turned pro at age 29 in 2006, so he has come a long way in short period of time. Since a shocking second-round knockout loss to rank journeyman Darnell Boone in April 2010, Stevenson, who born in Haiti but has lived in Quebec since he was 5 and is gaining Montreal fans with every fight, has muscled his way onto the doorstep of being a legitimate contender. Since the loss, Stevenson, a southpaw, has now won five consecutive fights by knockout, each against a legitimate competition. In his last fight, in December, Stevenson, who goes by the nickname "Superman," scored an absolutely sensational knockout of the year candidate when he iced Jesus Gonzalez with one massive left hand in the first round. He did not put Noe Gonzalez, 36, who is from Uruguay but lives in Argentina, away with the same type of highlight-reel knockout but he still got the job done in the "Friday Night Fights" main event.

Working with Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward for the second fight, Stevenson and Gonzalez spent the first round mostly feeling each other out. But then came the fireworks in the second round as Stevenson went to work. He backed Gonzalez into the ropes with a couple of left hands. That was the beginning of the end. Stevenson continued to throw unanswered punches, eventually catching Gonzalez with a nasty left hand that staggered him followed by several more blows, including a hard right and a left. Gonzalez was against the ropes in rough shape when referee Michael Griffin stepped in to stop it at 1 minute, 40 seconds. There were some who thought it was initially a quick stoppage, including ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas. Eventually, however, after looking at replays, Atlas changed his tune. This was a fair stoppage.

After the fight, Stevenson said he hoped for a title shot against either Andre Ward or Lucian Bute. A fight with Bute, who is Montreal's biggest boxing star, would be enormous. Stevenson is not quite ready for either of them, but he is quickly becoming must-see TV. Gonzalez saw his 14-fight winning streak -- 13 of which came by knockout -- come to an end. He had not lost since losing a unanimous decision in Germany to Felix Sturm in a 2007 middleweight world title bout.