By Ian S Palmer
Former cruiserweight contender BJ Flores of San Francisco, California will be taking on unbeaten Trevor Bryan of Schenectady, New York in a 12-round heavyweight bout at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona this Saturday, August 11th. Flores last fought in June of 2017 when he beat Nick Guivas by a six-round unanimous decision. Bryan’s last outing came back in December when he stopped Francois Russell in the third round.
The veteran Flores is now 39 years of age and boasts a record of 34-3-1 along with 21 Kos. He’s not really known as a knockout puncher, but does have decent power with a current KO ratio of 55 per cent. He stands 6-feet-2-inches tall and has a wingspan of 80 inches. Flores has 188 rounds of pro experience since turning pro in 2003. He took an 18-month break from the ring before returning in 2014 and has won 10 of his 12 bouts with six of them coming inside the distance.
Flores has faced the likes of Tony Bellew, Hugo Pineda, Darnell Wilson and Andy Sample with his three losses coming by 12-round unanimous decision to Australian Danny Green in Australia back in 2010 and by 12-round unanimous decision to Beibut Shumenov in July of 2015 along with being stopped in the third round by Bellew in 2016. His lone draw was a four-round affair against Semisi Bloomfield back in 2003.
Flores was known as a solid cruiserweight earlier in his career and was able to capture several regional and minor titles in that weight division. However, when he fought for major titles such as the WBA interim and WBC World Cruiserweight titles against Shumenov and Bellew he fell just short. Flores has always been a durable boxer with a good chin and skills, but he’s now pushing 40 and will be given up 10 years to the 28-year-old Bryan.
As for Bryan, he’s 6-feet-4-inches tall with a 79-inch reach, giving him a two-inch edge in height over Flores with an inch reach disadvantage. He made his pro debut back in 2011 and has 70 rounds of experience to his name. He enters the fight with a perfect mark of 19-0 along with 13 Kos. He’s got heavy hands with a current knockout ratio of 68 per cent. Bryan had a pretty good amateur career before turning pro, but nothing really spectacular.
Since entering the pro ranks, he’s beaten boxers such as Elieser Castillo, Epifanio Mendoza, Deric Rossy and Galen Brown. His 2015 bout against Rossy was for the vacant NABF Junior Heavyweight Title and he took it by a 10-round unanimous decision. The biggest problem with Bryan has been his lack of experienced opponents. In fact, he’s only faced boxers with winning records in four of his 19 pro fights with Flores being just the sixth.
Prediction…
Flores is past his prime now, but a solid pro. He’s 10 years older than Bryan and obviously has a lot more experience. But having said that, Bryan appears to have the power to stop him if he connects on the button. This is a competitive matchup, but Bryan really needs to step up the level of competition if he hopes to be taken seriously in the heavyweight division. I think he should be able to beat an aging Flores though.
