By Jim Dower: Veteran Dat Nguyen (20-3, 7 KOs) pulled off a huge upset in stopping the talented 24-year-old prospect Miguel Flores (21-1, 9 KOs) on Tuesday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FSI at the Silver Street Studios in Houston, Texas. The 34-year-old Nguyen nailed Flores with beautiful left-fight combination to the head in the 6th round that put him down on the canvas.
Flores barely beat the count and was barely able to stand when referee Lawrence Cole checked him over and allowed him to continue. In the meantime, Nguyen was in a sprinters pose ready to run across the ring and finish off Flores.
As soon as Cole let the action resume, Nguyen went after Flores, nailing him with combinations to the head until he slipped on the canvas and fell down. Cole stepped in at that time and halted the fight with Flores still standing but looking very hurt. Nguyen then jumped up off the canvas and started celebrating his big upset victory.
The official time of the stoppage was at 1:02 of round 6. The Flores-Nguyen fight was scheduled for 10 rounds. Nguyen was the B-side, and he flipped the script by putting off a major upset against the favorite Flores.
It was clear from the 1st round that Flores was going to have problems against the bigger, stronger Nguyen. The size difference between the two fighters looked significant. Nguyen appeared to have put on a lot more overnight after rehydrating from Monday’s weigh-in, and he looked a lot of heavier Flores. Nguyen was both bigger and stronger than Flores. Looked powerful and reminded me a lot of former world champion Kostya Tszyu the way that he was attacking Flores and hitting him with short, compact shots to the head and body.
Nguyen is a good fighter. Flores’ management may have underestimated how good Nguyen is, and how hard he can hit. Nguyen was forcing Flores to trade with him at the start of the fight, and he didn’t have the punching power to brawl in that kind of style. Flores was moving and trying to get away from Nguyen, but he couldn’t do it. Nguyen was right on top of him the entire time, tagging him with heavy blows to the head and body.
Flores had his moments in the fight with his nifty boxing skills, but he just didn’t have the weight or the power on his side in his fight. Nguyen was on another level than him.
Nguyen has now won his last three fights. Nguyen has been beaten by Jayson Velez, Luis Orlando Del Valle and Gregorio Torres. Nguyen has had a couple of years where he didn’t fight during his career. It’ll be interesting to see if Nguyen can get a bigger fight off this victory over Flores. It would be nice to see Nguyen in there with a top contender or champion at super featherweight like Vasyl Lomachenko.
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In the co-feature bout, undefeated light welterweight Darvin Price (12-0, 6 KOs) stayed unbeaten with an 8 round unanimous decision win over the game Hylon Williams (16-4-1, 3 KOs).
