Undefeated super lightweight prospect Bryan Flores rose from the canvas and rallied to a career-best victory over SHOBOX® returnee Shinard Bunch in the main event of a SHOBOX: The New Generation tripleheader that featured three entertaining, 50/50 fights live on SHOWTIME from Cache Creek Casino in Brooks, Calif.
It was all Bunch in the beginning of the 10-round main event, but all Flores late. Bunch threatened to end the night early, catching Flores flush with a right uppercut, left hook combination that sent the Mexican down for the sixth time in his career. But like he’s done each time he’s been dropped, Flores rose to his feet undeterred and went on to win the fight.
The judges scored the fight 96-93 for Bunch and 97-92 and 95-95 for Flores.
“I am so happy. I dreamed I would get dropped and get back up to win and that’s what happened,” said the 27-year-old Flores. “This is truly a dream come true. I sometimes need to get dropped to come alive in the fight. I wasn’t hurt. I was waking up. The fight went exactly how I pictured it. That was how we wanted it to go. I knew he’d be strong in the early rounds, and we trained for that.”
Bunch used the momentum of the first-round knockdown to continue winning the early rounds, working behind a strong jab. But in the second half of the fight, Flores upped his output and began to land his power punches at will. Bunch landed 76 jabs compared to 27 by Flores, but Flores held a 76-51 edge in power punches including 44 body shots.
“I thought with the knockdown and how strong I finished the fight, I’d pulled it out, but I accept the decision,” said the New Yorker Bunch. “He was out on his feet in the first round. He was definitely saved by the bell.”
“The difference in the fight was I’m Mexican with a Mexican heart and I train with Ismael Salas,” said Flores. “That’s why I won.”
The co-featured bout was a tale of two halves, as Argentine prospect Guido Schramm (16-1-1, 9 KOs) rode a second half surge to earn a hardly-fought majority decision over previously undefeated New York super welterweight Jahyae Brown (13-1, 9 KOs). The scores were 95-95, 98-92 (Schramm) and 97-93 (Schramm).
“That was pretty much how we expected it to go. I’m too strong for him,” said the 27-year-old Schramm. “I can’t wait to be back and show more of my skills. I felt good in there. My conditioning and my strength made all the difference. I give myself about a seven out of 10. I made some mistakes, but I did lots of things well and we got the win.”
Through the first half of the fight, it looked like Brown might cruise to a career-best victory. He was showcasing an arsenal of skills both offensively and defensively and was comfortably ahead on two out of the three scorecards through the first five rounds. Schramm then found a second wind and began dominating the fight with his strength and aggression. Brown only won one round on one judges’ card throughout the remaining five rounds.
“No question, I lost,” Brown graciously said. “I thought he should have gotten a unanimous decision. The mistake I made was trying to brawl with him. I would box him if I could do the fight over again. I got pulled into his fight. I hit him with some good shots, but nothing happened. He’s very strong. I’m going back to the drawing board and I’ll be back better than ever.”
Overall, Schramm held a 210-180 advantage in total punches landed and threw nearly 300 more power punches (645-346). In rounds six through 10, Schramm averaged 79 punches thrown per round, compared to just 30 for Brown. Brown became the 225th fighter to lose his undefeated record on SHOBOX.
In the telecast opener, undefeated super welterweights Raul Garcia (12-0-1, 10 KOs) and Robert Terry (9-0-1, 3 KOs) fought to an entertaining draw. The judges scored the fight 77-75 for Garcia, 77-75 for Terry, and 76-76.
Unsurprisingly, both Garcia and Terry felt they had done enough to win the fight.
“I thought I won. I outworked him up and down,” said the 24-year-old Garcia, who hopes to one day follow in the footsteps of recent Dominicans to win a world title including Hector Luis Garcia and Alberto Puello. “I threw more jabs and landed the harder shots throughout. I was a little stunned at one point, but I recovered quickly. I had him hurt at one point too.”
“I thought I won six rounds of the fight,” said Jersey City’s Terry. “I had him hurt. I probably should have finished him, but I figured I would take my time. I let him off the hook and I shouldn’t have. I won the fight, but the judges didn’t think so. What can you do?”
Both fighters had their moments over the course of the eight rounds, with Terry’s counter-punching causing problems for Garcia. Terry staggered Garcia in the closing seconds of the fourth round and opened up a cut under his eye in the fifth. But during the second half of the contest, Garcia grew into the fight and wore Terry down with his volume punching and body shots. Garcia landed 39 body punches to 15 for Terry and landed 70 of 260 power punches thrown (27 percent). Terry was more accurate, landing 64 of 202 power punches thrown (32 percent).
In a prototypical SHOBOX fight that matched even prospects in their toughest contests to date, both fighters expressed their dissatisfaction with the result.
“I’m disappointed of course,” said Garcia. “We came here to win and we trained hard. If I ever get the chance again, I’d love the rematch with him.”
“I give myself a C+,” Terry said. “I feel good, but I really wanted the win. I didn’t come here to get a draw, so I’m pretty disappointed.”
Tonight’s SHOBOX tripleheader will re-air on Tuesday, April 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME®.
The telecast was the first of back-to-back nights of boxing on the network, as undefeated super welterweight sensation and SHOBOX® alum Sebastian Fundora defends his title against rising contender Brian Mendoza in the main event live on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. Two other SHOBOX alums, Brandun Lee and Luis Núñez, will also showcase their skills in separate bouts on tomorrow night’s televised undercard.
Friday night’s card was promoted by Sampson Lewkowicz and his Sampson Boxing promotion company.
International Boxing Hall of Famer Barry Tompkins called the blow-by-blow action alongside former junior middleweight world champion Raul Marquez with another Hall of Famer Steve Farhood joining remotely as the unofficial scorer. The executive producer of SHOBOX: The New Generation is Gordon Hall with Richard Gaughan producing and Chuck McKean directing.
