On Friday night's PBC on ESPN boxing card, held at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY, Super Featherweight Miguel Flores remained unbeaten in his professional career with a very exciting unanimous decision victory against game challenger Ryan Kielczweski.
Kielczweski (25-2-0, 7 KO) was expected to be a big step up in competition for the Mexican prospect and he did not disappoint, proving to be exactly the test Flores needed at this stage of his career in what developed into an all-action showdown. Flores started out the fight picking apart his foe with stinging combinations and never really stopped that game plan for the entirety of the 10 round bout, which was being contested at the 127 pound Featherweight limit. While it took Kielczweski, a native of Boston, a few rounds to figure out a way to get in between Flores' piercing shots, he finally managed to find a home for his big right hand in the 3rd frame, pushing the favorite back into the ropes and into survival mode. The shots Kielczweski landed were obviously the heavier of the two fighters, however the frequency with which he was landing his shots could not match that of Flores, leading to many back and forth rounds.
While Flores (21-0-0, 9 KO) was unable to truly deter his opponent's aggression due to his obvious lack of power, he made up for it in the judges' eyes with a consistent output and incredibly accurate work to the body, winning convincingly on scores of 97-93, 96-94, 96-94.. The Mexican, fighting out of Houston, landed clean shots to the body the entire fight and mixed in a nice looking array of punches from his arsenal. Flores is undoubtedly on his way to bigger fights in the near future, although he will need to improve his footwork and lateral mobility in order to compete with the division's elite.
In the co-feature, former Cuban Olympic medalist Yordenis Ugas (16-3-0, 7 KO) pulled off a mild upset of rising contender Jamal James in an eye-opening welterweight battle, dominating on scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 96-94. James (20-1-0, 9 KO), who fought just last month and accepted the fight on only 3 days notice after Byrant Perella withdrew with a hand injury, received the first defeat of his career at the hands of the seasoned Ugas, who was coming off a layoff of over 2 years.
The American started out strong in the first two rounds, but the third round saw Ugas gain control using a massive right hand to the body and repeated shots that landed directly on James' chin, slowly wearing him down as the 10 round contest progressed. The Cuban remained on the offensive the duration of the fight, never allowing Jamal to get in a groove. The fight continued to be competitive throughout, however it became apparent early that Ugas was the hungrier of the two warriors, leading to the overwhelming victory.
