By Rick Reeno

 

There were some shaky moments at the end, but cruiserweight BJ Flores (21-0-1, 13KOs) boxed his way to a unanimous decision over the hard-hitting Darnell Wilson at the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino in Dover, Delaware. Official scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110. The win shot Flores up to the number 2 position in the IBF rankings, and he's probably going to receive a top-ten position by the other sanctioning bodies.

 


 

Prior to the fight, there was questions regarding Flores' chin and his ability to overcome a pressure fighter like Wilson. He answered those questions and was able to use Wilson's aggression to his advantage with a consistent jab.

 

"I was never hurt in the fight. He never had me buzzed, never had me hurt and or seeing stars. He's so strong and physical that it's difficult to stand in one place. Why would I stand in front of him and give him his only shot? I never went down in the third round. We both punched at the same time, but it was definatley not a knockdown. He never hit me with the punch. I lost my balance after I threw the right hand. Referee Steve Smoger was all over it. Wilson came at me with a few big shots that pushed me back pretty hard, but I was never hurt," Flores said. "He was a tough, durable guy."

 

Flores made Wilson miss a lot of the big bombs that left previous opponents unconscious.  He doesn't downplay the level of danger when fighting an opponent with Wilson's punching power and durability.

 

"His punches were so wide, they were so easy to see coming. It was actually eeasier than I thought it would be. I said in the beginning that it was a bad call by his management (to take this fight). He's still going to give anybody a tough fight because of his size and his chin," Flores said. "You can't let yourself get caught up in his tactics because he will knock you out. You can outbox and control him like I showed you in the fight.

 

"This is my first fight where I was tested. There is deep bag of tricks that I can reach into and I showed that. That's where a good amateur background comes in. You don't just go in there and knock a guy out, you need to put the punches together. He didn't have a game plan. He could hit me or find his range and he just started lunging at me. He was tired at the end."

 

The big test is finally over. Flores is already preparing for the next step to move his career towards an shot at the cruiserweight title.

 

"I might return on ESPN at the end of April. Nobody wanted to fight Wilson and none of the top-ten guys wants to fight each other. I'll fight anyone," Flores said.