BJ Flores

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has a real live dog in front of this Saturday night in the form of the talented and well experienced BJ Flores in their fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew’s trainer David Coldwell sees Flores as someone that is in a position to cause of upset on Saturday night due to his punching power and his good boxing brain.

Coldwell realizes that Bellew has to beat at his best to beat the 37-year-old Flores otherwise he could wind up just like Ilunga Makabu did in getting blown out in three rounds last May in a fight he was supposed to win.

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By Scott Gilfoid: The older and some would say wiser BJ Flores says he’s going to be looking to knockout WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew this Saturday night in their fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Flores, 37, wants to set a fast pace right from the start and look to get the 33-year-old Bellew out of there quickly.

Flores is ranked low by the World Boxing Council at #14, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s facing a flawed champion in Tony Bellew, who is probably no better than #15 in terms of talent when you line up the best fighters in the division.

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew wants to go out and punish challenger BJ Flores this Saturday night in their fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) says he won’t be thinking about his World Boxing Council title on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring against Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs).

He’ll only thinking about fighting for his life. Bellew believes that he’ll fight harder than Flores will, because he’s willing to taste the canvas and get back up to continue fighting. He doesn’t think that Flores is willing to fight at that level. He sees him tasting the canvas and staying down rather than getting up to continue fighting.

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KO) defends his title for the first and perhaps the final time this Saturday night against BJ Flores (32-2-1,20 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew is supposed to win, but you can’t really predict what’s going to happen on Saturday because the 37-year-old Flores is the more talented fighter of the two, and he’s a natural cruiserweight, not someone that ate his way to the division.

Like in his last fight against a very, very flawed Ilunga Makabu, Bellew will have a puncher’s chance of winning against Flores, but that’s pretty much it. Flores has the better boxing skills of the two, so it’s in Bellew’s best interest to turn the fight into a war from the get go.

If Bellew makes the mistake of trying to box Flores like he did Isaac Chilemba on two occasions, then I see him struggling. I’m not saying Bellew will lose, because the fight is taking place at the Echo Arena. There’s no way I see Bellew losing the fight by a decision no matter how badly he gets out-boxed.

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBC World cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title this Saturday night on October 15 against #14 WBC BJ Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. It’s still unclear how Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn was able to get him a voluntary defense of his World Boxing Council title, because he was supposed to defend his title against the #1 WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Breidis in his first defense.

Bellew captured the vacant WBC title in his 3rd round knockout win over Ilunga Makabu last May. When the title is vacant, the new champion is supposed to fight the #1 mandatory in their first defense. It’s interesting that Bellew is being allowed to fight a voluntary fight against near bottom fringe contender Flores rather than having to fight a very, very dangerous challenger in Breidis.

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By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew’s first defense of his WBC cruiserweight belt against near bottom #14 WBC fringe contender BJ Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs) is now set for October 15 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew will have the hometown advantage, but he probably doesn’t need it to beat the 37-year-old Flores.

I still don’t know why on earth Bellew chose this guy to fight because he’s not ranked high, and he was recently beaten by Beibut Shumenov. But I guess that’s probably the whole reason why the 33-year-old Bellew chose to fight Flores rather than the unbeaten talent Mairis Briedis, who he should be fighting next given that he’s the No.1 fighter in the World Boxing Council’s rankings. I’m just saying.

Bellew was standing and crowing like a price rooster at the local county fair after he beat Illunga Makabu last May in their fight for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title at Goodison Park in Liverpool, UK.

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By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew thinks he’s going to have an easy time beating fringe contender BJ Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs) in their fight on October 15 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) will be defending his World Boxing Council cruiserweight title that he won three months ago against Illunga Makabu.

The WBC recently gave Flores a near bottom #14 ranking with their organization after he signed for a fight against Bellew. It’s unclear why Flores wasn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBC before he signed for the fight. It looks weird that Flores was ranked afterwards.

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