Tony Bellew vs. BJ Flores – Results

By Boxing News - 10/15/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Tony “Bomber” Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) successfully defended his title on Saturday in defeating bear bottom ranked #14 WBC fringe contender BJ Flores (32-3-1, 20 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew knocked Flores down four times in the fight all total. Three of the knockdowns came in round three. The final knockdown came from a left hook to the head of Flores in the 4th.

(Tony Bellew pictured above needing to be held back from David Haye after the fight)

Flores did make it up at the count of 10, but referee Ian John Lewis halted the fight anyway. It didn’t really matter that Flores beat the count, but he had no punch resistance or punching power. He would have been knocked out if the fight had gone on much longer.

In round two, Bellew landed a beautiful textbook low blow that badly hurt Flores. When the American tried to alert referee Ian Lewis that he had been hit low, he was having none of it, and he allowed Bellew to keep nailing Flores with shots until he dropped him with a left to the head. It’s unclear how the referee didn’t see the low blow because it was totally obvious. It was a shot that was low as I’d ever seen a low blown thrown before. It was a terrible missed call by the referee. Flores didn’t play it dirty himself in return. He took the high road by fighting fairly by not nailing Bellew with a low blow to even the score and buy some time. You can make an argument that Flores never fully recovered from the low blow. His mobility was gone after taking that shot south of the border. It was just sad and very strange how the referee could miss such an obvious low blow, and how he did nothing after being alerted. It’s just sad.

In the second knockdown of in the 2nd round, Bellew landed another left hook to the head to put Flores down. Flores barely made it up at the count of fight and looked hurt. Flores made the mistake of not holding onto Bellew after the knockdown, as he continued to try and fight. This allowed Bellew to swing for the fences until he connected with a big left that put Flores down for the third knockdown of the round. The round ended with Flores on the canvas. He barely made it to his feet, and then staggered back to his corner. There was no way that Flores could recover in between rounds. He wasn’t fighting smart, and he didn’t have the punching or the punch resistance to have any hope of making it through the 3rd round.

Bellew bragged afterwards, saying this to skysports.com about his win over the near bottom ranked Flores:

“I’m ruthless when I get going. BJ Flores is an old-school, respected fighter and he’s trying to fulfill a childhood dream. I’ve pummeled him tonight. I’m not called the Bomber for nothing! Understand me – getting home to my wife and kids is all that really matters.”

Oh brother, with the way Bellew is flapping his gums about this nothing win, you’d think he actually accomplished something big rather than ran over a hapless opponent who was pooled from the bottom of the WBC’s rankings.

Flores started off quickly in round three and was able to jab Bellew and nail him with a good right hand to the head. The two fighters then exchanged bombs at close quarters with neither guy getting the better of the action. Bellew took a HUGE right hand from Flores, but then he countered him with a choice left hook that dropped him on his hands and knees. Flores made the mistake of staying down until the count of nine before getting up right when the referee Lewis counted to 10. I thought Flores beat the count, but it didn’t matter. He was fighting so incredibly stupidly that he was going to lose anyway.

After the fight, Bellew jumped out of the ring and tried to get at David Haye, who was jawing at him. The two of them will likely face each other next in 2017 in a heavyweight match. It’s unclear what will happen with Bellew’s WBC cruiserweight title. He’s already bypassed facing his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis by taking the Flores fight, which he had to get permission to take. Briedis was supposed to get a crack at the WBC title, but Bellew chose the soft target of fighting the the light hitting 37-year-old Flores instead. It may have saved Bellew from getting knocked out, because Briedis looked devastating in fighting on the undercard tonight.

It’s going to be interesting to see if the WBC allows Bellew to put Briedis on ignore. If they do, whats the excuse for Bellew being able to avoid fighting him for the second time? Does Briedis get a step aside payment so that Bellew can fight Haye or does he just have to sit and take it? I think the WBC should look to strip Bellew of his title or give him an Emeritus tag or something if he’s going to steer around Briedis yet again. I mean, how long does Briedis have to wait for a fight that he should have gotten tonight?

David Haye will make easy work of Bellew if that fight comes off next year. Come on. If you throw Bellew in with Haye, it’s going to be just like the Adonis Stevenson vs. Bellew fight with Haye obliterating Bellew. As we saw tonight, Bellew is SO easy to hit it’s not funny. The only reason he did well against Flores is because he can’t punch. Flores is a non=-puncher, so it wasn’t surprising that his best shots were bouncing off the chin of Flores. I just hope Bellew doesn’t start saying that he beat the best cruiserweight in the world like he did when he beat Ilunga Makabu last May. That was comical and so sad. At best, Makabu was maybe No.50 in the cruiserweight division. For Bellew to be telling the boxing fans that he beat the best cruiserweight in the world on the night, it was hilarious. Flores is a decent bottom level cruiserweight, but that’s it. The quality guys are the ones that Bellew hasn’t been fighting like Briedis, Marco Huck, Krszysztof Wlodarczyk, Krzystof Glowaki, Olesandr Usyk, Denis Lebedev, Dmitry Kudryashov, Murat Gassiev and Olanrewaja Durodola. Don’t ask me why Bellew isn’t fighting any of those talents. I guess you can draw the lines to figure it out for yourself why Hearn isn’t putting Bellew in with those guys. I suspect they would all beat Bellew, so they’re not matched against him.