By Carlos Boogs
BoxingScene.com caught up with cruiserweight contender and NBC color analyst BJ Flores following his recent and somewhat controversial decision loss to Beibut Shumenov in their Premier Boxing Champions clash for the interim-WBA title fight at The Palms in Las Vegas.
BoxingScene: You lost a close decision to Shumenov last month on your home network NBC. All three judges had it 116-112. Were you surprised with the scoring?
BJ: First of all I feel great and do not have any injuries. Not a mark on me and doesn't even feel like I was in a fight. Already back to training and looking forward to my next opportunity. I want to congratulate Beibut on a solid performance against a true cruiserweight. Its tough to come up 25 pounds and compete, so of course he had to make some adjustments.
But of course I was incredibly surprised with the scoring. I threw more total punches, landed more punches, landed more power punches, and was the aggressor the entire fight - I feel he got way too much credit for moving and surviving. The judges saw it how they saw it and I respectfully disagree, but life goes on. It seemed more like a track meet than a fight to be honest. Felt like we were playing hide and go seek.
BoxingScene: Beibut is usually a much more aggressive fighter. Did his decision to box surprise you?
BJ: Honestly, that was the one thing that did surprise me. I've never seen Beibut take a step backwards in the ring before, and I always respected him for that. I thought I would finally get the chance to show the public what I could do with a tough aggressive come forward, former world champion. I expected a real fight-fan-friendly type fight from him. With that being said, I knew he underestimated the strength of the top guys in this division.
Once he felt the difference in impact and the force of the punches, we got a track meet. I hurt him in the first two rounds and he started moving/running. He was running so much that it was difficult to make contact anywhere - all his movement was going backward. Of course, I could have cut the ring off better and been more effective but I have never seen a fight over 200lbs where one guy runs that much. I wasn't prepared for that type of "fight" [laughs].
The PBC is about guys who want to fight and his running made that very difficult. It's a real shame because it could have been a sensational fight if Beibut actually fought, but he was only interested in self preservation. I can't say I blame him, by the way. He got dominated by Campillo and was gifted one of the worst decisions in the last 10 years. Same thing with Hopkins - one judge actually had the nerve to give him the fight. Of course he won some rounds but winning eight rounds by throwing less, landing less and going backwards? Maybe he knows something I don't? [laughs].
BoxingScene: What's next for BJ Flores?
BJ: I feel great and didn't have a scratch on me from the fight, so I was back in the gym on that Monday. I'm ready to get back in there asap. My guys Louie [DeCubas] and Mike [Borao] are seeing about it with Al [Haymon], but we are all looking at this like a win, not a loss. I'm looking to come back this November or December against someone in the top ten - a guy like Tony Bellew, I think that would be a great fight, USA v UK. If I'm victories against someone like Bellew, then I would love to face the winner of Huck v Glowacki sometime next year. Huck and Bellew are much braver than Shumenov and will give fans a great show. I wanted to give the fans a great performance this time around, but it takes two to do that.
BoxingScene: What's next for you as an NBC broadcaster?
BJ: GREAT, GREAT fights on PBC. Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Deontay Wilder coming up. I'm a huge fan of PBC and all the fights on free TV the fans are getting. Montreal with Lucian Bute then Foxwoods and Vegas in September.
BoxingScene: Thanks for speaking. Any last words to BoxingScene readers?
BJ: Excited to get back in there and get back into training camp. Look, I could have performed better. It is what it is. He jabbed and moved his way to a decision victory and I need to make adjustments to make sure that doesn't happen again. Looking forward to the next move.