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Bryan Flores Rises From Canvas
To Defeat Shinard Bunch
Undefeated super lightweight prospect Bryan Flores rose from
the canvas and rallied to a career-best victory over SHOBOX®
returnee Shinard Bunch in the main event of a SHOBOX: The
New Generation tripleheader that featured three
entertaining, 50/50 fights live on SHOWTIME from Cache Creek
Casino in Brooks, Calif.
It was all Bunch in the beginning of the 10-round main
event, but all Flores late. Bunch threatened to end the
night early, catching Flores flush with a right uppercut,
left hook combination that sent the Mexican down for the
sixth time in his career. But like he’s done each time he’s
been dropped, Flores rose to his feet undeterred and went on
to win the fight.
The judges scored the fight 96-93 for Bunch and 97-92 and
95-95 for Flores.
“I am so happy. I dreamed I would get dropped and get back
up to win and that’s what happened,” said the 27-year-old
Flores. “This is truly a dream come true. I sometimes need
to get dropped to come alive in the fight. I wasn’t hurt. I
was waking up. The fight went exactly how I pictured it.
That was how we wanted it to go. I knew he’d be strong in
the early rounds, and we trained for that.”
Bunch used the momentum of the first-round knockdown to
continue winning the early rounds, working behind a strong
jab. But in the second half of the fight, Flores upped his
output and began to land his power punches at will. Bunch
landed 76 jabs compared to 27 by Flores, but Flores held a
76-51 edge in power punches including 44 body shots.
“I thought with the knockdown and how strong I finished the
fight, I’d pulled it out, but I accept the decision,” said
the New Yorker Bunch. “He was out on his feet in the first
round. He was definitely saved by the bell.”
“The difference in the fight was I’m Mexican with a Mexican
heart and I train with Ismael Salas,” said Flores. “That’s
why I won.”
The co-featured bout was a tale of two halves, as Argentine
prospect Guido Schramm (16-1-1, 9 KOs) rode a second half
surge to earn a hardly-fought majority decision over
previously undefeated New York super welterweight Jahyae
Brown (13-1, 9 KOs). The scores were 95-95, 98-92 (Schramm)
and 97-93 (Schramm).
“That was pretty much how we expected it to go. I’m too
strong for him,” said the 27-year-old Schramm. “I can’t wait
to be back and show more of my skills. I felt good in there.
My conditioning and my strength made all the difference. I
give myself about a seven out of 10. I made some mistakes,
but I did lots of things well and we got the win.”
Through the first half of the fight, it looked like Brown
might cruise to a career-best victory. He was showcasing an
arsenal of skills both offensively and defensively and was
comfortably ahead on two out of the three scorecards through
the first five rounds. Schramm then found a second wind and
began dominating the fight with his strength and aggression.
Brown only won one round on one judges’ card throughout the
remaining five rounds.
“No question, I lost,” Brown graciously said. “I thought he
should have gotten a unanimous decision. The mistake I made
was trying to brawl with him. I would box him if I could do
the fight over again. I got pulled into his fight. I hit him
with some good shots, but nothing happened. He’s very
strong. I’m going back to the drawing board and I’ll be back
better than ever.”
Overall, Schramm held a 210-180 advantage in total punches
landed and threw nearly 300 more power punches (645-346). In
rounds six through 10, Schramm averaged 79 punches thrown
per round, compared to just 30 for Brown. Brown became the
225th fighter to lose his undefeated record on SHOBOX.
In the telecast opener, undefeated super welterweights Raul
Garcia (12-0-1, 10 KOs) and Robert Terry (9-0-1, 3 KOs)
fought to an entertaining draw. The judges scored the fight
77-75 for Garcia, 77-75 for Terry, and 76-76.
Unsurprisingly, both Garcia and Terry felt they had done
enough to win the fight.
“I thought I won. I outworked him up and down,” said the
24-year-old Garcia, who hopes to one day follow in the
footsteps of recent Dominicans to win a world title
including Hector Luis Garcia and Alberto Puello. “I threw
more jabs and landed the harder shots throughout. I was a
little stunned at one point, but I recovered quickly. I had
him hurt at one point too.”
“I thought I won six rounds of the fight,” said Jersey
City’s Terry. “I had him hurt. I probably should have
finished him, but I figured I would take my time. I let him
off the hook and I shouldn’t have. I won the fight, but the
judges didn’t think so. What can you do?”
Both fighters had their moments over the course of the eight
rounds, with Terry’s counter-punching causing problems for
Garcia. Terry staggered Garcia in the closing seconds of the
fourth round and opened up a cut under his eye in the fifth.
But during the second half of the contest, Garcia grew into
the fight and wore Terry down with his volume punching and
body shots. Garcia landed 39 body punches to 15 for Terry
and landed 70 of 260 power punches thrown (27 percent).
Terry was more accurate, landing 64 of 202 power punches
thrown (32 percent).
In a prototypical SHOBOX fight that matched even prospects
in their toughest contests to date, both fighters expressed
their dissatisfaction with the result.
“I’m disappointed of course,” said Garcia. “We came here to
win and we trained hard. If I ever get the chance again, I’d
love the rematch with him.”
“I give myself a C+,” Terry said. “I feel good, but I really
wanted the win. I didn’t come here to get a draw, so I’m
pretty disappointed.”
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