Yonnhy Pérez vs. Joseph Agbeko II
Four bantamweight boxers participated in "The Bantamweight Tournament: Winner Takes All", one of the bouts being Yonnhy Perez vs. Joseph Agbeko II. The tournament itself was a two-stage, single-elimination tournament of 118-pounders – which began with two semifinal bouts on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010, in the Battle at the Boat series from the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash. In the opening bout, undefeated, world-ranked rising star Abner Mares of Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico, faced two-division world champion Vic Darchinyan of Sydney, Australia, by way of Armenia. In the main event , Perez and Agbeko squared off against each other for the second time. They had fought a Fight of the Year candidate the previous October. Build up. Rather than an immediate rematch with Perez and Mares, Perez faced Joseph Agbeko for the second time in the first round for his IBF, which he won from him, in Showtime's upcoming bantamweight tournament while Mares faces Vic Darchinyan. The winners of both fights will face each other sometime in early 2011. They are barely unknown outside of boxing circles, fighting in a 118-pound division that rarely gets any attention. But they 've all signed on for a single-elimination tournament in hopes of not only making a name for themselves, but also providing boxing fans with some exciting fights. The tournament originally was scheduled for Leon, Mexico, but Showtime did a site survey and realized that the cost for staging the event there - including security in a region that has been besieged by violence among the drug cartels - would be prohibitive. When no venue could be secured in Los Angeles, the event was moved to Tacoma, Wash. Perez was the only current champion, (Vic Darchinyan was the IBO champion, but that  organization lacks real recognition by the International Boxing Hall of Fame, other organizations, boxing magazines and fans) while Agbeko had held world titles and Mares was a top contender. They had a combined record of 102-4-3 with 76 knockouts before these two bouts.