Bryan Flores’ first loss didn’t leave him bitter. 

In his eyes, it’s helped make him better.

Two fights ago, Flores dropped a split decision to Lindolfo Delgado in a battle of unbeaten junior welterweight prospects in August 2024. Flores lost two pivotal points – from a knockdown in the third round and a deduction in the seventh round on a highly questionable low blow call from the referee.

Those two points proved to be the difference between defeat and a draw. The final scores were 96-92 and 95-93 for Delgado, and 96-92 for Flores. Otherwise, the tallies would have been 96-94 for Delgado, an even 95-95, and 98-92 for Flores. 

Their match was featured on an ESPN broadcast. Delgado moved on to an elimination bout and has since become the mandatory challenger for IBF titleholder Richardson Hitchins. 

Flores, meanwhile, returned in Mexico last May, making short work of the 18-2-1 Hernan Leandro Carrizo. He is unranked by any of the four major sanctioning bodies.

Perhaps that will change soon. 

Flores, who is signed with promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, is set to take on Starling Castillo this Friday on ProBox TV. The show is being held at Live! Casino and Hotel Maryland in Hanover. 

(Note: BoxingScene and ProBox TV are both owned by Garry Jonas.)

“Winning this fight is a big challenge for me,” Flores, now 27-1-1 (16 KOs), said in an interview with BoxingScene. His quotes have been translated from Spanish to English via a translation app. 

“And being able to win would give me a lot of confidence to go after the title or a title eliminator opportunity,” he said. “But first, I'm focused on winning this fight.”

Boxing is a sport where career trajectories can be propelled by one win or slowed significantly by a single loss. Flores would be within his rights to be upset at what happened against Delgado and to covet the opportunities that Delgado has since received as a result of, well, the result.

Flores prefers to take the high road.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “I think Lindolfo is a serious contender for the world title. And it was quite a fight. It was my second fight in the United States [BoxRec lists it as his third], and I think I left a good impression, although I could have done a lot more. But that’s how the result turned out. I still think the fight was a draw, but it was good. I think I learned a lot, and I think I’m ready to show that I’m going to be a world champion.

“I’m proud, honestly, because he’s Mexican, too,” Flores added later. “And for having put up a great fight against him, you know? I think with the team I have and with the training we’ve been doing, I can beat anyone.”

One big change came after the loss to Delgado. 

Flores joined forces last year with Las Vegas-based trainer Richard Barrientes, whose twin sons Angel and Chavez are also professional boxers. Barrientes came onboard prior to Flores’ bounce-back bout against Carrizo.

“I’ve just been kind of cleaning up,” Barrientes said. “My philosophy on these guys that have these many fights is just like polishing the edges, you know, adding a jab. A lot of these Mexican fighters, they’re real aggressive, so I kind of just worked on a little bit of defense, because in some of his other fights he gets hit a lot. So I kind of work on his defense a little bit, adding a jab, just being a little bit more technical in his approach.”

“You’ll see a different Bryan,” Flores said. “The same aggressive Mexican style, but more technical.”

Coach Barrientes also is well aware of what Starling Castillo, a 30-year-old from the Dominican Republic, can do. Castillo’s trainer, Bob Santos, worked for some time out of Pound4Pound, the boxing gym Barrientes owns.

“Bob Santos was in my gym for the last three, four years. We trained a lot of fighters together, and Starling Castillo was one of the fighters that we had here. So I’m real familiar with Castillo and his style,” Barrientes said. “Bryan's never sparred with him, but we pretty much trained him for a couple of his fights. [...] Being here in Vegas, we have a lot of that kind of style. There's a lot of Cubans and Dominicans and similar styles for [Flores] to use to get ready for this fight.”

Castillo is 20-1-1 (13 KOs) and is also unranked at 140lbs. 

Both of his blemishes came in 2022: a unanimous decision loss to the 10-0 Otar Eranosyan and a draw with the 14-0 Kenny De Leon. Castillo has won three decisions in a row – fending off low blows and biting from the 12-0 Esteuri Suero, defeating the 13-1-1 Jesus Saracho and, last August, outpointing the 21-2-1 Shinard Bunch. 

“I think he’s a tough opponent, a strong opponent, one of the most difficult fights of my career,” Flores said. “But I’m on a great team, and we’ve worked very well based on that. It’s going to be a great fight of styles.”

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.