Abner Mares gets another shot at the featherweight title Saturday

Abner Mares’ opponent Saturday is featherweight world champion Jesus Cuellar of Argentina, but another foe has agitated Mares on the way to the Galen Center ring for this bout.

Doubt.

Mares, 31, is seeking to avoid a third featherweight-title defeat in his past six fights, after dropping a majority decision to Southland rival Leo Santa Cruz last year and losing his belt by first-round knockout to Jhonny Gonzalez in 2013.

Mares (29-2-1, 15 knockouts), who is from Hawaiian Gardens, won a stirring collection of bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight belts over a four-bout run in 19 months. Since then, he has gone through a string of trainers while trying to revive his career.

And Mares’ match against World Boxing Assn. champion Cuellar (28-1, 21 KOs) was canceled in June when the New York State Athletic Commission ruled that Mares’ 2008 detached-retina eye surgery and another vision-improving procedure made him ineligible to fight in New York.

Mares passed a California State Athletic Commission-mandated vision test before the Cuellar bout could be scheduled.

“Bro, you just mentioned every single bad thing that could happen to someone, but look at me, I’m still standing here,” Mares told a reporter last week. “All of that did not break me. So nothing can break me.

“I’m fighting for the world title again. What more can I ask? I’ve been through a lot, the good and the bad, and it’s made me the person that I am.”

Cuellar, 29, knocked out Vic Darchinyan in 2015 to win the belt and successfully defended it by cruising to a unanimous-decision triumph over Jonathan Oquendo last December. Cuellar is a rugged fighter who chases knockouts and is guided by seven-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach.

Mares is counting on the extended sessions during the past year with new trainer Robert Garcia to develop his foot and hand speed.

“I’m so excited to showcase a different side of me,” Mares said. “Honestly, I feel like I’m the total package now. I’ve been a good fighter, but now I’m a good boxer too. Before, I’d fallen into the, ‘Maybe I can’t do it;, maybe I’m not as good’ [attitude], but now I know I can, and I am going to show it.”

When Mares locked glances with Cuellar at a recent stare-down, he said his revival felt complete.

“I’m happy I got to show him I’m not scared. He’s nothing new to me. I’m ready,” Mares said. “I’ve found that with my new coach, with my family, with my kids growing, I feel revitalized. I feel joy.”

Garcia said Mares’ ability to take an honest account of where he stands in the fight game is encouraging.

“If not, it’s over. He’s not getting younger,” Garcia said. “He knows he doesn’t have 10 more years in boxing. He has to think of the others in his life and fight for their future. A 30-year-old sees that better than a kid in his 20s. It benefits him that this is pretty much his last chance, and if he has no success in this fight, then, yes, it’s pretty much [over]. … We need to win this fight.”

While Garcia has guided plenty of veteran warriors, including Antonio Margarito and Marcos Maidana, he says he’s more than capable of coaching a boxer like Mares.

“The way [Mares] was fighting before — the crowd-pleasing way — was an easy way out,” Garcia said. “I’ve done my job in changing that around, and he believes in me. I have no doubt he can beat Cuellar.”

Mares expects to draw motivation from a supportive home crowd and the reality that his career clock is ticking down.

“I always go in knowing it could be my last fight,” Mares said. “You have to go in with that mentality because you don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m not doing this because I need to. I’m doing it because I love it, because of the history and for what I can prove.”