By Miguel Rivera

Triple world champion Abner Mares hopes to have a big fight in his next ring outing, either a rematch with Leo Santa Cruz or against Jhonny Gonzalez, and finally the championship bout against WBC featherweight king Gary Russell.

In his last fight, Mares suffered a twelve round decision loss to his hometown rival Santa Cruz on August 29 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They both share the same manager in Al Haymon and Mares has already spoken to him about a rematch with Santa Cruz.

"Yes I have plans for a rematch. After the fight, the first thing I did was to try to secure the rematch. I was told to take my time, to rest, and my manager Al Haymon, who is also the manager of Leo, said the rematch is being considered," Mares told ESPN Deportes.

"And if the immediate rematch is not done, I know there are other interesting names at 126 pounds. I'm used to fighting big names in this division. If not a fight with Leo, then Gary Russell or even Jhonny Gonzalez, who just moved up in weight and lost. I got criticized a lot for fighting Jonathan Oquendo, but I saw that it was difficult for Johnny and I beat him."

Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) hopes to have a fight in December following be a major name in the first half of 2016, hopefully against one of the targets he mentioned earlier.