"I showed that I could go in there and really dominate"

Friday night, undefeated Cruiserweight BJ “El Peligroso” Flores 18-0-1(12) kept his perfect record intact, when he defeated former USBA Cruiserweight champion Chris “Cold Steel” Thomas 16-7-2(14) by unanimous at the Knox Arena in Olive Branch Mississippi. Boxingtalk.com caught up with the prospect/contender to get his thoughts on the fight.

RC: What’s going on BJ? Give us a run down of the fight that took place this past Friday night?
BJF: Everything is going good everything is great. It was a good fight man; my man (Chris Thomas) came in shape. He is a really good fighter. What can I say? Al Bernstein scored it 117-110, and the other judge had it 116-111. So it was a good fight. He won the second; he knocked me down in the ninth round. I mean I was dominating the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th and he caught me with a good left hook in the 9th, my feet was squared up and he knocked me down. I got up, and it was right at the end of the round. So one of the judges only scored it a 10-9 because I was dominating the rest of the round. The other two scored it 10-8 because of the knockdown. Then the next round my corner said just be careful move and don’t do anything, so he got that round too. Then in the eleventh and twelfth I came back and dominated him real strong, I almost had him out in the twelfth. After the seventh round, Al Bernstein predicted “BJ Flores will knock him out in the eighth round” In the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th man I was just chopping him up with the right hand. His face was full of blood; from his nose, his mouth, his eye was swollen and everything was bleeding. So he was in shape what can I say.

He was eight weeks over in Poland with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (IBF Cruiserweight champion) and then he was also five weeks in Chicago in an isolated camp, and he told me afterwards that he has never got so up for a fight, and that he knew he had to win this fight to get his career back on track, so he put everything into this fight.

RC: Give us your thoughts on your performance overall?
BJF: I am glad that I went twelve rounds, the knockdown in the 9th round was kind of a flash knockdown, he got me with a good shot but there wasn’t a lot of damage done, but he hit me with a good shot.  So it showed that my endurance and my stamina was real good. I dominated all of the middle rounds, I mean I hit him with some good shots; he was game and he was tough.  .

Every time I had him hurt, he turned into an octopus, the referee wasn’t warning him when he was holding, and he would just break us. So he just kept holding the whole time. He wasn’t real physically strong but boy he could punch. He has a real strong right hand and he had a real good rangy jab. I had never seen any tape on him or anything so I had to go out there and feel him out a little bit, but he was surprisingly good. He came out in great shape, and was doing some different things and you know working over there with Wlodarczyk in Poland did a lot for his confidence and his team was positive he was going to win the fight.

I also felt that it was good to go twelve rounds against a guy who a lot of people don’t want to fight because he is punching. He has knocked out so many guys, so nobody wants to fight him. But I showed that I could go in there and really dominate him except for those three rounds. If he didn’t knock me down, it probably would have been 11 rounds to one. But that happens, I learned a good lesson, I got up and I finished the fight strong. My stamina felt great and I am just ready for more solid opposition.

RC: How would you grade your performance overall?
BJF: I would give myself honestly; I mean everyone says the fight was great. Al Bernstein said that I graduated from prospect to contender and that was probably the biggest compliment I got. He said that it showed that I will be a handful for any cruiserweight out there in the world today. He said he felt I showed poise, I was real controlled, he said my power looked real good and my speed looked real good. Chris’ eye was real swollen, and he was bleeding profusely everywhere. So the punches were definitely having an affect on him. He was a dog that night, he knew that was kind of his last shot, and to beat an undefeated guy, he felt that was his chance to get back in and kind of resurrect his career. So he came with his “A” game. So would give myself a “B” because of the knockdown. If I didn’t get knock down I would probably give myself an “A” but you live and you learn

RC: What do you think would be the biggest thing you learned from the fight?
BJF: Just that I can go twelve rounds so easily. I really should have picked up the tempo a little more. We had a pretty fast tempo; if you see the fight tape you can see that we were shooting punches. I wish I could have got my hands loose a little more inside to work a little more inside. He felt my strength on the inside so he tried to tie me up, but I wish I could have found a way to break free and work better on the inside. I learned that I could go twelve rounds, and go strong. Also, that I got a chin because I got right back up after that knockdown. He hit me with a clean shot and I got up afterwards and won the final two rounds.

RC: Is there anything else you would like to add in closing?
BJF: I am just looking forward to getting back in the gym. I don’t have any injuries, I am not even sore I don’t have any problems; my face doesn’t have any marks on it. I feel ready to get back in the gym immediately, and I will be looking for stiffer opposition in the future. I will go back, I ill correct the flaws that I made and put on an even better performance. Everybody who saw the fight said that it was really good and that I showed a lot of tools and a lot of ability, but I am a perfectionist so I like winning every round. So I am going to go back and work on those things to make sure that the next time I am going to do that. It looks like I am coming back March 2nd in Boise Idaho; I will be the main event out there.

RC: Will this fight be the one where you take on a top 10-15 kind of guy?
BJF:  Man I would love to. They’re three or four guys that I would love to fight. If my team can put it together I sure would like to do it, so I feel like I am ready for it, I have gone the twelve rounds now. I fought a guy that a lot of people, a lot of inside guys considered one of the biggest punchers in the division. That doesn’t mean that he is the best fighter, but that does mean that he is one of the biggest punchers. I went in there and went twelve rounds, and had him hurt, severely hurt. I had him on the go so many different times and hurt so bad.

RC: Are you at all disappointed that going into the fight you wanted the K.O. and even though you had him hurt a few times that you weren’t able to get him out of there?
BJF: Am I disappointed? Of course I wanted to get him out of there and get the knockout. I mean I am the one that went down, but I had him hurt. He had me down but not necessarily hurt. I had him hurt like four different times and he wouldn’t even go down. He would clinch, he would hold, and one time he was saved by the bell and that’s when Bernstein predicted I would get him out of there in the 8th because of how bad he was in the 7th. So I am disappointed that I didn’t get him out, but that is going to come with experience. 

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