By Cliff Rold
An anticipated ESPN2 Friday Night Fights Cruiserweight main event devolved into a sometimes tedious, always sloppy affair as 29-year old 2004 U.S. Olympian BJ Flores (22-0-1, 13 KO) picked up the biggest win of his career over 33-year old veteran banger Darnell Wilson (22-6-3, 19 KO).
Flores came out edgy and nervous in the first round, flicking his jab and leaping back from the hooking intentions of Wilson. That jab was just effective enough to narrowly edge the round in Flores’s favor and he carried that tactic through to the second, also scoring with a hard left halfway through the frame and two solid rights close to the bell. Wilson did little punching, and the blows he attempted were winging shots easily blocked and ducked by the former Olympian.
Wilson improved his fortunes in a sloppy, sometimes frantic third. Wilson continued to lunge forward sans any pretense of a jab but managed a few hard body shots before losing the advantage again in the fourth. Flores landed a hard right hand early in that round and controlled the tempo with his jab, forced only to survive a hard Wilson hook at the bell.
Flores, rather than settle a bit with some rounds in the bank, fought more nervously in the fifth than he had all night, getting on his bike and nearly running from Wilson in spots. Wilson took advantage of that and landed a solid left hook that provoked a wink in acknowledgement from Flores. Flores continued to move in the sixth but remembered to sit down on his shots, landing some solid right hands and smothering Wilson’s occasional wild hook attempts by keeping his right hand against his chin.
The fight was locked into a pattern at the halfway mark with Flores content to jab, move and fire the occasional hard shot or combination and Wilson throwing punches as if they had been pre-rationed.
The first half of the seventh provided a dreary lack of action from both fighters but was saved down the stretch as Flores trapped Wilson in the corner, stood his ground and landed his best blows of the night. That brief outbreak of violence led to an eighth round that was in spots the best and worst of the night with Wilson landing a right hook that seemed to stun Flores early on and following with an anxious assault before the fight returned to its more familiar posing.
That brought the boo birds in the crowd out in force.
The momentum stayed with Wilson in the ninth as he pushed the action and Flores jabbed, occasionally fired a right, and hopped on the hot foot.
The tenth was difficult to score; Wilson landed the best punch of the round, a right hook in the corner, but missed wildly throughout the rest of the round from there as Flores piled up points with the jab.
Flores seized the advantage on the eleventh with one of his best rounds of the fight. Wilson was moving backwards, seemingly looking for a counter hook against his less experienced foe. While he did that, Flores came forward with the jab and landed some crisp rights and even a solid left uppercut from a distance. Wilson took the advantage back in the twelfth and final round, landing some hard hooks and an especially hard straight right hand as Flores backpedaled his way to the cards.
Turned out to be a good idea as Flores was rewarded with a unanimous decision by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and a harder to understand 118-110. Boxing Scene scored the bout 115-113 for Flores. Both men weighed in at the division limit of 200 lbs. Flores is likely to pursue a title shot from here while Wilson should remain the more likely candidate to be welcomed back to television.
On the televised undercard, journeyman Light Heavyweights were featured with 25-year old Dhafir Smith (20-16-6, 4 KO) of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania scoring an eight-round unanimous decision against 33-year old Rayco Saunders (15-9-2, 7 KO) of Pittsburgh.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
