BJ Flores is one of the most respected boxing commentators in the sport and he is also a world ranked boxer in the cruiserweight division. I recently was afforded an opportunity to speak Flores and in part 1 of this interview, I got his thoughts on his recent decision loss to Beibutt Shumenov. BJ discusses how the fight played out and if he is interested in having a rematch. Flores also gave his views on the current boxing landscape, sharing his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather’s choice to fight Andre Berto and how he thinks that fight will play out. Here is what BJ Flores had to say.
Robert Brown: You’ve had some time to reflect on your last fight with Beibut Shumenov, how do you feel about it now?
BJ Flores: Exactly how I felt about it that night, the exact same way. Of course I could have fought better, of course I could have done things to make adjustments and fought a better fight, but at the end of the day, I still out landed him in power punches by almost 30 power punches and out landed him in total punches too.
I was the aggressor the entire fight, so I just don’t see how I lose eight rounds to four when I out landed him in ten of the twelve rounds on power punches and he pretty much moved the entire fight. It is what it is, I respectfully disagree with the judges. I respect their decision, but I just don’t see how, and a lot of people ringside made comments about how I possibly lost. There’s people out there that obviously felt that I did.
I went back and watched it on tape and tried to look at it from a very non biased perspective and even with the announcing and everything, I still feel like I won the fight. I feel that he was given too much credit for moving and running and moving around and not enough credit given for clean punching. That’s how I feel about it.
Robert Brown: Do you think you may have been a little bit ill prepared for the way he was going to fight?
BJ Flores: He didn’t come out in the first round boxing like that. He came out in the second and third round after he felt some of the punches, that’s when he started moving around.
That was a Beibut that we’ve never seen before, he’s always been a come forward seek and destroy fighter, and that’s what I thought, “finally I have an opponent that’s gonna come forward and is gonna give me a shot to look good on TV because he’s a guy that’s gonna come forward, and we’re gonna have a real fight.” We got anything but a fight, it felt like I was playing hide and go seek in there the entire time.
Robert Brown: Are you interested in a rematch?
BJ Flores: Of course I would want a rematch, but who would want to see a rematch of that? It was horrible. The first few rounds were pretty good and it got exciting, but once he got on his bike, he really had no desire to engage at all. If I’m a fan and I’m watching one guy circle around the ring the entire fight and looking to just stay out of harm and stay out of danger, would I want to see that? Absolutely not.
I think the chances of a rematch are very unlikely but I’m still a little confused and it’s a little surprising to me how he was given eight rounds like that. If he fought that same exact fight in Russia against Lebedev or in Germany against Huck, he would lose ten rounds to two.
Robert Brown: What are your thoughts on the upcoming Mayweather vs. Berto match?
BJ Flores: I mean, who should Floyd fight, honestly? Who should he fight? Everyone says Amir Khan or Keith Thurman, but Amir wants a lot of money for the fight, he really does, that’s what I’ve heard. He’s lost three times but he’s very good, but who really deserves to fight Floyd except Keith Thurman?
Keith Thurman is the only guy who should make a case for himself if he’s the rightful guy to really want to fight Floyd. You can’t even compare anyone to Keith’s resume: Luis Collazo, Robert Guerrero. You can’t say he should for sure fight Floyd but in my opinion I think Keith would give Floyd the most problems right now. I just cant pick anyone to beat Floyd.
Amir, I don’t think he would give Floyd near as many problems and some people say, I just don’t see it. He doesn’t move his head enough, he doesn’t punch hard enough to really scare Floyd. He’s not rough enough on the inside, I think Floyd would completely dominate Amir. And that’s no knock against Amir, Amir’s a great fighter.
Keith is the guy who would really be able to test Floyd because he’s got that kamikaze mode where he comes in and when he’s punching, your head better not be there. It’s a tough style because Keith is very good and very strong and he goes to the body well but you can’t pick anyone to beat Floyd right now.
Robert Brown: Has Amir cost himself the fight against Floyd?
BJ Flores: He talks too much, he needs to be quiet and let his handlers work on it. That’s how deals get made and that’s how big fights get made. Amir has had way more big fights than I have, so I have very little room to talk, but I feel like in this particular situation, if Amir would have just sat back and relaxed and let this play out, I think Amir probably would have gotten the fight.
Amir was doing too much media stuff, too much stuff to try to hype it up and Floyd is just like, “I’ll fight anybody I want, and you’re not a big enough name to where I’m going to be forced into doing anything. I just fought Manny Pacquiao, that’s the fight everyone wanted, now I’ll fight whoever I want, it doesn’t matter. If you want to keep talking too much, then you’re gonna talk yourself out of this fight.”
Robert Brown: What sort of pay-per-view numbers can possibly be expected out of Mayweather-Berto?
BJ Flores: You gotta remember one thing, the core boxing fans make up a very small amount of the overall pay-per-views. It depends on what kind of job Showtime does with the build up and if they do the whole thing where they cover the training camp.
I think if you get inside the camp of Andre Berto and you get inside the camp of Floyd, and you get people really watching that and tuned in, I think it’s still going to sell. It won’t sell like Manny and Floyd, but I think it could easily do similar numbers of what Maidana did in the first fight and it could easily do similar numbers to what Guerrero did.
Man BJ sounds very bitter about his last loss XD
I feel for Bj but he had no answer for Shumenovs very predictable movement. He should have been able to cut the ring off and force him to fight, Shumenov isnt that great with his movement