BJ Flores, Cruising Down the 200 Limit

Often fighters move up in weight for whatever reasons they provide. The surrounding circumstances might vary depending on what you’re looking at. In most cases, it’s for convenience of making weight or for more lucrative paydays.

For many, it’s a career enhancing opportunity.

Some fighters move down in weight for plausible chances of capturing a world title.

But for heavyweights in the low 200lbs range, it’s a struggle. It’s a choice between dropping down to a nowhere-land in cruiserweight or to unrealistically compete against bigger opponents and have limited success in doing so.

Such was not the case with former two-time Heavyweight Champion Chris Byrd, the technically proficient southpaw, who often fought and BEAT his superiorly sized foes. But against those who could land on such elusive target, as Ike Ibeabuchi or Wladimir Klitschko did, Byrd had no choice but to fall.

Wisely enough for the former heavyweight prospect, BJ Flores, is among the few who’ll optimistically drop down in weight to seek for a run at the talented but less glamorous Cruiserweight Division.

Next Saturday, Flores makes his 200lb. debut against Chicago ’s Ali Supreme at the Veteran Memorial Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona for the vacant WBF All-American Title.

The Missouri native, who now trains out of Arizona , turned pro in May of 2003 after a long decorated amateur career which includes two consecutive U.S national championships.

As a kid, Flores was trained by his father who’s served years in the military. He was then taken under the tutelage of the renowned trainer Kenny Adams, who also trained Flores’ father during his service in the Air Force.

Following his successful 2001 and 2002’s U.S National Championship run, Flores turned professional and quickly signed with promoter Main Events. He was later joined by Adams who replaced his father as head trainer, but due to Adams ‘ personal problems, Flores later hooked up with trainer Danny Smith, who’s known for his recent work superstar Fernando Vargas.

“When I switched trainers from my father after signing with Main Events, I thought the natural choice was to go with Kenny. I met Danny in Las Vegas, he worked with Kenny and few of his fighters, and I liked his style. He seemed like a real intelligent trainer. And when Kenny’s wife started having health problems, he had to take a break, so I jumped on the chance to work with Danny. So I called Danny and asked him if he would train me and that was that.

We’re 5-0 so far.” said Flores.

Smith, who’s known for his work with Fernando Vargas since his return in 2004, has often been dubbed as a defensive wizard. But according to his fighter, there’s a lot more to his repertoire than just defense.

“You know what, he’s known for defense because Fernando was always talking about how Danny improved his defense. But he’s not just a defensive coach. He wants me to come forward, and do other things, but people have this misconception of Danny being too defense-oriented. In his first two fights with Danny, Fernando really struggled with weight, so he wanted to let his hands go but he couldn’t.”

“He’s definitely good at teaching defense. But he’s a total trainer. He works on my offense, being patient and being composed. So he basically makes me well rounded and well seasoned. We worked on body punching, combinations, defense…just everything.”

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

In a division loaded with the likes of O’Neil Bell, Jean-Marc Mormeck, Steve Cunningham, and the recently returned Vassily Jirov, Flores , in reality is stepping up a class in terms of competition. The lack of marquee names in a sandwiched weight class represents a sense of urgency, and the cruiserweight sharks are ready to attack.

Despite his unbeaten record of 15-0-1, 10KOs, his resume at heavyweight wasn’t all that impressive with most of wins coming in against limited opposition.

In his last fight, he won an eight-round unanimous decision against the journeyman Jermell Barnes on the non-televised portion of Gatti-Damgaard at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. But after severing ties with Main Events, Flores decided to move down a weight class for better and perhaps more lucrative opportunities.

“I’ve gone up to 215, but I felt close to 200, so I felt that’s where I had to be” said Flores.

And to disregard any doubts, Flores is confident to win a world title in the near feature.

“At cruiserweight I’m going to definitely accelerate the pace. At heavyweight you got to be careful, there’s a lot of politics involved. I want to fight for the USBA title and get ranked in the top 10 by the IBF. Then I want a shot against either Steve (Cunningham) or Guillermo (Jones), who ever wins that fight.”

With the lack of appeal in the murky heavyweight division, Flores sees great prominence in the deep 200lbs. weight class.

“Bell-Mormeck was a great fight. In cruiserweight you’re combining a lot of speed and power. The up and coming guys in the cruiserweight division are tough and durable that no one knows about. There are guys like Shuana Geoge, Felix Cora, myself and a lot more young guys, then you have the guys like Bell, Cunningham, Jones, and Braithwaite.”

“And we got guys like George and myself who will kick those guys off the rock. So my plan is to get those guys outta there, then come up and see what we can do.”

At age 27, time is on his side. With only a few Latin boxers enjoying any success at the north border of the 175lb. division, Flores, could become the first Latin American to win the cruiserweight title. Despite his lack of experience against world class fighters, Flores has some quality sparring under his belt in against some of the world class cruiserweights including the former champion, Vassily Jirov.

According to publicist Matt Goldstein, his fighter will soon be ready for the elite level of competition.

“He’s going to be much more effective (at cruiserweight). There’s no doubt about it. He’s a boxer-puncher. I think he’s going to be a world champion.”

“By next year, he’ll be ready for the Bells, Cunninghams, and Mormecks”

Goldstein also emphasized the market value in Flores, alluding to the promising career that we’ve come across before.

“He’s educated. People listen when he speaks, he knows what he’s talking about. He’s good looking, and like Oscar De La Hoya, he has that Latino appeal, that sex appeal that drives the sport of boxing. And that’s very important in terms of marketability. ”

Perhaps it’s a little too soon tell, but a few impressive showings down the road could prove otherwise.

THE CONTENDER RECAP

I must say, the rubber-match between Contender’s Alfonso Gomez and Jesse Feliciano is the best eight rounder I’ve ever seen in recent years. After the fourth round where Feliciano pummeled Gomez against the ropes, I thought I was seeing another pretender being exposed. But to his credit, Gomez fought back valiantly and did enough to earn a draw on my scorecard, as he did with two of the judges who scored it even.

But realistically, could you really call yourself a ‘contender’ when you’re going life-and-death with a rugged guy like Feliciano, a fighter by no stretch of my imagination, who lost four of his last six fights?

In the main-event, the Contender winner, Sergio Mora would get off the canvas in the second round to eventually stop Archak TerMeliksatian in the seventh. Despite the win, his performance isn’t above criticism, as he again continued to display technical flaws, which could easily be exploited by the elite performers in the game.

I’d say both Mora and Gomez need about three or four fights, before taking on a REAL contender.

FINAL NOTES

Was it all that necessary for Mayorga to pull another shenanigan as he did in threatening to pullout of this Saturday’s fight? Perhaps it may well have garnered more interest from the general public, but from the media’s perspective, it was rather disappointing.

But on a lighter note, the fight now appears to go on.

After all these years, De La Hoya might have slipped as a fighter, but as a star, he still remains at the top. However, I, for one, believe this will be his final fight. Let’s face it, De La Hoya, hasn’t legitimately won a fight since his 7 th round stoppage over Yori Boy Campas. That was 2003. At this stage, I don’t even consider the Golden Boy as a top 20 fighter pound for pound.

In somewhat of a minor upset, I’ll take Mayorga’s work-rate and pressure to prevail in a semi-entertaining fight.