MMA Mania with word of yet another pro boxer signing with an MMA promotion:
Current undefeated NABO Cruiserweight Champion B.J. Flores is planning on becoming the next world class boxer to make the transition to mixed martial arts.
After fielding interest from several major promotions, the 31-year-old San Francisco native has agreed in principle to a non-exclusive, multi-fight contract with Shine Fights.
MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) confirmed the pending deal with sources close to the negotiations earlier today.
If the name B.J. Flores rings a bell for MMA fans it may be his appearance on the Roy Jones March Badness event. A fight which landed a very solid #7 on Bad Left Hook’s countdown of the worst T.V. fights of 2009:
7. BJ Flores v. Jose Luis Herrera – March 21
The main boxing co-feature on March Badness saw notably boring cruiserweight contender BJ Flores do away with Herrera, a bomber whose record coming in was 16-5. JLH (Jennifer Love Hewitt?) had all 16 of his wins by way of knockout, and four of his five losses were inside the distance, too.
So guess how it turned out with ol’ Beej over there. Of course it went the full 10 rounds, with Flores never really letting his hands go, perhaps a tactic designed to put Herrera into a bit of a trance. It worked, I guess. Flores easily won the fight, but considering March Badness had the intent of bringing boxing and MMA fans together with a night of good fights, this became even worse, as it felt like the more boxing-heavy side of the fanbase almost had to apologize for this brutally dull bout. Thankfully we also had that horrible Bobby Lashley-Jason Guida MMA fight on the show, so tit for tat.
At first glance this is a boxer in his prime who is entering the MMA arena, which should be exciting. However, Flores has made a career of not fighting top guys and being an co-feature fighter on underwhelming cards. B.J. is an alphabet champion (NABO is probably around the 5th most well regarded title) and undefeated with 24 wins, yet doesn’t crack the top ten of the ring magazine cruiserweight rankings.
His last fight was beating blown up middleweight Epi Mendoza when Mendoza retired with a shoulder injury. Before that was the awful March Badness fight, and prior to that was beating up a 260+ pound Matt Hicks.
I don’t expect much from Flores in MMA, this is a guy who has a boxing record so carefully protected that to think he’s suddenly going to take a huge risk fight in MMA is a bit unreasonable.