Abner Mares has grand plans for his New York debut

Abner Mares’ first visit to New York could be a reunion — between him and a world-championship belt.

The Hawaiian Gardens product, who won world titles in three divisions during a four-fight stretch from 2011 to 2013, will fight Argentina’s Jesus Cuellar on June 25 on CBS at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the World Boxing Assn.’s “world” featherweight belt.

Cuellar, 29, is an impressive puncher described by Showtime Vice President Stephen Espinoza as a “mini-Marcos Maidana,” Cuellar’s rugged Argentine countryman who gave Floyd Mayweather Jr. all he could handle in their first 2014 bout.

Cuellar (28-1, 21 KOs) won the belt in June, knocking out former world-champion Vic Darchinyan at StubHub Center, and successfully defended it in December, knocking down Jonathan Oquendo en route to a unanimous-decision victory.

“I’m very confident I’m one of the best five [featherweights], and now I need to prove it,” said Cuellar, who’s angling to fight the July 30 winner of the Leo Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton bout, also at Barclays. “My punch and my strength,” win most fights. “I know I’m strong. A hard hitter. It’s in my instinct to go for the knockout, but in a fight of this magnitude, I have to be prepared for 12 rounds.”

Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) knows how to navigate 12 rounds. Now 30, the resilient boxer is fighting for the first time since August, when he lost a decision to Santa Cruz at Staples Center.

Mares’ planned March fight against Fernando Montiel was scrapped because of an injury to main-event fighter Keith Thurman, the unbeaten WBA welterweight champion who will headline the June 25 card against former champion Shawn Porter.

Since the Santa Cruz loss, Mares parted for a second time with his longtime trainer, Clemente Medina, and is training in Riverside under Robert Garcia, who has a reputation for pushing fighters like Maidana, Brandon Rios and Antonio Margarito to embrace their rough edges.

“Really, what I’m looking for is to learn as much as I can before it all ends, before this is gone,” Mares said. “I’m fighting the best. I’m excited to be fighting a level fighter and because he holds a title.

“I’ve always considered that [nasty streak] to be my mentality. That’s the kind of person I am. I grew up in a bad, rough, ghetto atmosphere, so it’s nice to have someone just as tough as Robert to bring out that bad side. It helps on the motivational side to believe that of yourself.”

Mares, like Cuellar, would be in position to fight the Santa Cruz-Frampton winner, or seek another champion in the division like Gary Russell Jr. or Lee Selby.

But first, there’s Cuellar, an opportunity for Mares to conquer a puncher after his 2013 first-round knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez at StubHub.

Cuellar’s “not so much of a boxer, not so much a skill guy,” Mares said. “Those are the guys you have to be cautious with. They never give up. Those punchers, you might hit them, but they show you it doesn’t hurt. I’ve just got to be smart and take it round by round. If a knockout doesn’t come, I have the experience to last 12 rounds. The game plan [is to box], and I can stand toe to toe. Even if I don’t have the same KO power, my power is still known. Ask my opponents.”

Mares will bring his family to New York, planning a post-fight tour of the city that will be especially enjoyable if he’s wearing a certain belt.