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Flores Jr. Impresses In ESPN Spotlight
By William Trillo
Photos: Mikey Williams - Top Rank
Lightweight Gabriel Flores Jr. (18-0, 6 KO’s)
unexpectedly stepped into the spotlight against Josec
Ruiz (21-1-3, 14 KO’s) when the scheduled main event on
ESPN was KO’d by Covid-19. Not letting the opportunity
get by, Flores may have never looked better. Using a
skillful mix of punches and ring generalship, Flores
kept the hapless Ruiz at bay and off balance over the
ten round demolition.
Dropping Ruiz in the second round it appeared this one
would be over in quick fashion, but the determined Ruiz
got up and remained on his feet for the remainder of the
fight. That gave Flores ten rounds to show the boxing
world his wares. It was an eye-opening performance.
Scores of 100-89 across the board gave the young Flores
a clear-cut unanimous decision.
“He was a tough guy, but he was not on my level. Going
10 rounds for the first time in my career was a valuable
learning experience. I see a world title in the next 12
months. That’s my goal, but we have to see what’s out
there first. I’m training in Vegas now, and the sparring
and training out here has helped elevate my game.”
Undefeated Super Middleweight David Kaminsky (6-1,
3KO’s) found himself in an unexpected brawl with a human
buzzsaw in Clay Collard (7-2-3, 2 KO’s). The battle
tested and rugged Collard is an unorthodox fighter, the
likes of which Kaminsky has ever seen. What Collard
lacks in flash he makes up for in grit and heart.
Kaminsky, the hot young prospect, was unable to solve
that puzzle and left the ring looking the worse for
wear.
The nonstop punching machine Collard punched and chopped
his way to victory over the highly touted Kaminsky. In
the end the judge’s scorecards read 58-56 Collard, 58-56
Kaminsky and 58-56 Collard giving the underdog opponent
the split decision nod.
On the upset special Collard said, “I honestly thought
he would hit harder. But once I felt his power, I
pressed the action. I didn’t know if the cut came from a
punch or a headbutt at first, but I knew being
aggressive would be the key to victory. I was nervous
when the cards were being read, but I felt I’d done more
than enough to earn the decision.”
Bantamweight Robert Rodriguez (8-0-1, 4 KO’s) opened the
show with a bang against Adrian Servin (9-1-1, 3 KO’s).
Rodriguez dropped Servin early in the second round with
a clean punch. Servin got to his feet but Rodriguez put
the pedal to the metal until the ref saw enough and
brought this one to a halt at the 2:48 mark of the
second round.
Super Lightweight Victor Rodriguez (3-0, 1 KO) used
steady work along with superior skill to completely
dominate Justin Horsley (0-2). While Horsley relied on
some unpolished boxing skills, Rodriguez showed good
footwork coupled with some nice accurate punching. This
one wasn’t close as Rodriguez pitched a shutout, 40-36
on all cards.
Young up and comer Super Featherweights Frevian Gonzalez
(3-0, 1 KO) and Jose Martinez (2-1, 1 KO) took to the
ring in this four round “someone’s 0 has got to go”
scrap. The fight looked to be evenly matched early on
but as the fight started taking shape it was Gonzalez
who took charge convincingly. Final scores all in favor
of Gonzalez read 40-36 and 39-37 twice.
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