By Dan Ambrose: IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green (30-3, 27 KO”s) is finally going to be facing a live opponent in unbeaten American cruiserweight contender BJ Flores (24-0-1, 15 KO’s) on November 17th in Sydney, Australia. Green, 37, a one-time WBA light heavyweight champion, has taken on a number lesser and older fighters since making his comeback from two-year retirement in 2009.

In his last fight, Green won a 1st round knockout win over Paul Briggs in July, in a fight where Briggs went down from a jab that appeared to gently brush across the top of his head. Briggs stayed down and was counted out.

There was a huge uproar about the fight with many boxing fans feeling that Briggs had thrown the fight. Green wasn’t happy about it either and the whole thing looked really bad. Now Green wants to take on one of the top contenders in the cruiserweight division in 31-year-old Flores, who is still largely unproven at this point.

Boxing fans have been waiting to see how Flores would do against the very best in the division but he’s taken things very slowly with his career and hasn’t jumped in to take on the very top guys yet. This fight amounts to be a huge leap up in competition for Flores.

Before this fight, Flores has beaten fighters like Darnell Wilson, Jose Luis Herrera and Epifanio Mendoza. Those are the best fighters that Flores has been in with, oddly enough. In his fight with Wilson, Flores built up a lead in the first half of the fight and then ran through the remaining rounds as Wilson attempted to rally.

That fight was shown on cable it didn’t endear Flores with many boxing fans, as they wanted to see him mix it up more with the 35-year-old Wilson.

Since making his comeback in 2009, Green has beaten the following opponents: Anthony Van Niekerk, Julio Cesar Dominquez, Roy Jones Jr., Manny Siaca and Briggs. Some boxing fans feel like Green is just looking to fight winnable fights rather than taking on the top guys in the division like Marco Huck, Steve Cunningham, Krzystof Wlodarczyk, Ola Afolabi, Denis Lebedev, Victor Ramirez, Steve Herelius, Alexander Frenkel, Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Enzo Maccarinelli.

There has been speculation lately about whether Green would be invited or would being taking part in the cruiserweight Super Six tournament if invited. But there is still no indication that Green will be invited.

In an article at wwos.ninemsn.com.au, Green said “He [Flores] is an undefeated fighter, what more could you ask for. We are giving Australian fans what they want to see. With his size, speed and power, it’s definitely going to be a big test. I’ve never faced anyone inside a boxing ring that big.”

Flores, 6’2”, is only one inch taller than the 6’1” Green, and he’s not a big puncher. Flores is a guy that likes to hit and run and use the ring. He’s not like Lebedev and Huck. Those guys are really dangerous and that would be a fight that Green would be in big danger in because of the youth and power of those guys. Flores is more of a runner. This isn’t the kind of fight where Green would be in the same kind of danger as he would if he stepped it up and fought Cunningham, Huck and Lebedev. Those would be very tough fights for Green to try and win at this point in his career. If he couldn’t knock them out early, he might find himself in a real fight and he could be the one getting knocked out.