by James Slater – As fans know, unbeaten cruiserweight contender B.J Flores has been craving a fight with Marco Huck, the reigning WBO 200-pound champion, for quite some time. However, for one reason or another, the 31-year-old known as “El Peligroso” has been unable to get the fight, and it seems he must now look elsewhere for a title shot.
Next up for Flores, according to BoxRec, is a June 26th date with 27-year-old Eric “Danger” Fields, the big puncher from Oklahoma with the 14-1(12) pro record.. An interesting match-up to be sure, the bout set for Atlanta, Georgia – on the card that will also feature Jean Paul Mendy-Fernando Zuniga and names Juan Carlos Gomez, Shawn Hawk, Kirk Johnson and Zahir Raheem in action – will please those fans who have been urging Flores to take a risky fight to prove how good he is.
Not having fought since August of last year, when he scored a 4th-round TKO over Epifiano Mendoza, Flores certainly is in need of action. Against Fields, who has won three KO’s in a row since losing his unbeaten record to the useful and tricky Ola Afolabi in April of 2008, he may well get some!
Though Flores is the superior boxer of the two, Fields is the puncher in this fight; and the younger man’s nickname is a most apt one. Fields has scored 11 KO’s in three-rounds or less, and he has seen off some decent operators – former IBF 200-pound champ Kelvin Davis being the most impressive name on Field’s resume; “Concrete” falling inside a round in January of 2008. The three wins since the setback at the hands of Afolabi have been against so-so opposition, but Fields remains ambitious and he will be looking to get the biggest win of his career against Flores.
The two men will contest the vacant USBA belt that Flores once held, and the winner could well move into a much bigger fight. Flores, of course, has dealt with dangerous punchers before; seeing off “The Ding-A-Ling Man,” Darnell Wilson, via a wide UD in an IBF title eliminator that also saw the man from Arizona pick up the belt he will attempt to regain in June. And he will no doubt feel he is more than capable of doing so again.
It was assumed, though, that Flores would get a world title shot pretty soon after the Wilson win in Feb. of 2008. Instead, the talented fighter who has worked plenty with current WBA heavyweight champ David Haye has fought just three further bouts since; neither of which were big fights. Though he will likely start a big favourite over Fields, Flores is finally taking another step in the right direction as far as his getting in with a cruiserweight titlist goes. And the fight with Fields figures to be exciting and fan-friendly.
Flores could take the same approach he did when he outboxed Wilson, or he may feel the need to get a statement-making KO to silence his critics. Fields will surely go for the KO, and he will almost certainly come out blazing away at the first bell. Can Flores deal with this pressure?
In a word, yes, he can, He did it against Wilson, and Flores figures to be too quick, too smart and too classy for Fields. Unless, of course, he does deviate from what he does best and goes toe-to-toe with “Danger.”
I see Flores winning a pretty wide decision, in a fight that will remain interesting right to the final bell due to the aggression of Fields.