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Home » Exclusive: BJ Flores ‘ready for Daniel Dubois now’, willing to face Dillian Whyte or Lucas Browne

Exclusive: BJ Flores ‘ready for Daniel Dubois now’, willing to face Dillian Whyte or Lucas Browne

The 38 year-old has already racked up two victories in 2017 since losing out to Tony Bellew in his last match at 200 pounds and feels fresh at the weight as he plots a push towards the bigger names at the higher class.

“My speed and power are both much, much better than before,” Flores exclusively explained to World Boxing News.

“I stayed at cruiserweight at Least three years too long. It’s very difficult to fight twelve rounds when you are so calorie deprived for a 10-week camp and then spend the final days in the sauna.

“I’m also bringing a new trainer on board in Danny Smith. I trained with Danny and Brandon Woods from 2005-2010 and I never lost in those five years.

“Brandon is a very young, hungry up and coming trainer but he relocated to Las Vegas after working under Kenny Adams for three years. He’s very good and specializes in strength and conditioning so it’s great with Danny.

“At this point in my career, it’s time to utilize all of my assets as I need to be at my best for these heavyweights.”

Recently signing a new promotional deal with former world champion Dimitriy Salita, Flores is reinvigorated and wants to prove a point – even if that means heading over to the United Kingdom where there’s an abundance of talent in the top division.

“Working with Dimitry Salita has been fantastic. He reaches out to me daily and we discuss certain things as far as what the game plan is,” he said. “I pretty much sit back and let him work.

“Over in the UK, I have a lot of respect for Eddie Hearn. Eddie is always looking out for his guys and going to bat for them. You have to respect that.

“Eddie summed things up best with James DeGale. When you don’t have a promoter, no one gives a f***. I have seen this first hand as in my ‘loss’ with Shumenov. We were both managed by Al Haymon and it was what it was.

“Both fighters did good but could only be one winner regardless of me chasing him and out-landing him in nine of the twelve rounds. This issue has been resolved and Dimitry and I are now working together as a team to move forward.”

Fixating on the future and what possibilities may lie ahead, Flores aims to push himself right in the mix, just as previous opponent Bellew did after they shared the ring late in 2016.

“The things is, I accepted fights with Alexander Povetkin and Sergey Kuzmin before Povetkin went with Christian Hammer and Kuzmin with Amir Mansour,” he pointed out.

“But that’s all gone now and I would love to fight Dillian Whyte on February 3rd in London. He is very good and making some major headlines in the UK.

“I know I would be a huge underdog but people will very quickly see that at heavyweight I’m a completely different fighter with speed and strength.

“These last twelve months have been spent in the weight room and I’m honestly walking around at 228lbs now.

“Daniel Dubois also would be a fight I wouldn’t hesitate taking. A very good young prospect who I would love to get now rather than a couple of years.

“Another is Lucas Browne. People were talking about him fighting Dillian but if that doesn’t happen I️ would love to fight Browne if he’s up for it.

“He’s a big undefeated former champion and they are the kind of fights I’m aiming for,” concluded Flores.”

Phil Jay is Editor of World Boxing News. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay