Jose Nunez hammers out upset of Bryan Flores in El Paso

Jose Nunez brought dangerous power punching to the El Paso Civic Center on Friday night, dictating the action and the outcome to upset IBF No. 15-ranked Bryan Flores in the ProBox TV main event.

Effectively muting Mexico’s Flores in total punches landed (84-59) and power punches (74-41), Nunez remained undefeated at 19-0-2 (8 KOs).

Victory came by scores of 96-94 (judge Daniel Sandoval), 97-93 (Esther Lopez) and 97-93 (Jesse Reyes).   

After pounding Flores with a body shot in the second, Panama’s Nunez rocked Flores with a sudden left to the nose in the third, an important event as Flores paused the pursuing style he leaned on to win impressively in July’s ProBoxTV main event over Jonathan Navarro in San Bernardino, California.

Flores wasted time in the early rounds looking for an opening without bringing the action, obviously leery of the punishment he had just absorbed.

Nunez’s ability to fling effective power punches revealed Flores’ reasons for reluctance, and even when Flores landed well on a combination in the fifth, Nunez answered with a scoring flurry of his own.

Through five rounds, Flores, 29-2-1 (16 KOs), landed only 21 punches.

Flores’ effort to smother Nunez against the ropes in the sixth was only window dressing, as he failed to deliver punches and then saw Nunez escape the pressure with an effective combination to close the frame.

Nunez, a southpaw, maintained a position of comfort in the seventh, content to let the seconds burn away while delivering the more effective blows of the round.

Through seven rounds, only one fighter reached 10 landed punches in a round.

In the eighth, Nunez’s intensified pace reduced Flores to hoping the judges would know his Mexico hometown is just a 30-minute drive from El Paso, Texas.

Flores sustained a nasty cut over his right eyelid on an accidental clash of heads in the ninth, increasing the action briefly before the fight was paused by a doctor’s examination of the cut.

Nunez let his power left hammer Flores to the body in the 10th, hurting the Mexican and sealing the victory.

In the co-main event, Mongolia junior lightweight Tsendbaatar Erdenebat, 16-0 (6 KOs), gained a unanimous decision victory over Tajikistan’s Muhammad Yaqubov, 98-91, 98-91, 99-90.

Mexico welterweight Ruben Aguilar, 25-0-1 (22 KOs), scored a third-round stoppage of Argentina’s Guido Schramm, 17-5-3 (10 KOs). Aguilar knocked down Schramm three times in the round, and the referee waved off the fight. Both men were down in Round 1.

Earlier, Texas welterweight Emilio Garcia improved to 6-0 (5 KOs) with a unanimous decision over Diego Zuniga by three scores of 60-51.

Welterweight Elijah Flores, 11-1 (4 KOs), also gained a unanimous decision victory (79-73, 80-72, 78-74) over Axl Melendez Salgado, 7-2-1 (4 KOs).