By Ryan Burton

Cruiserweight contender BJ Flores (25-1) returned to the ring Saturday night for the first time since suffering his first career loss, a unanimous decision to Danny Green in Green's backyard this past November.  Flores dropped Iannuzzi in the 1st round and kept the pressure on until Iannuzzi's corner stopped the contest at the of the fifth round. Coming off the loss to Green, Flores was looking to make a statement.

Flores told BoxingScene, "I knocked him down hard in the first round with an overhand right.  He barely beat the count.  I wanted to make a statement in this fight. It was very important to me that I not only won but won impressively. This was a crossroads fight for me."

The Green fight was contested at a catchweight of 195 pounds. This fight was fought at the full 200 pound cruiserweight limit. The part time ESPN analyst felt a lot stronger at the full weight limit and attributes that to being one of the reasons that he was able to make a statement versus a highly rated opponent. 

"I felt very good and very strong. Coming in at 200 pounds instead of 195 like I did for my last fight made a huge difference! This was the type of fight I needed. Nick Ianuzzi showed that he is a top level North American cruiserweight in his fight versus Lateef Kayode and I went out there and dominated him in his next fight," said Flores.

A nice size crowd was on hand Saturday night and Flores revealed that he has a deal in place for another fight in Springfield, Missouri. He also vowed to be in the ring on a more frequent basis.

"Now that we have this deal in place with the O'Reilly center we will be fighting again in late October. I will be fighting again in Springfield, MO at the end of October. I will fight another tough top rated North American opponent and I expect the same type of result. This is a new chapter in my career where I will be active and exciting!"

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