JAMESTOWN, Calif. – Lightweight Gabriel Flores Jnr’s ProBox TV debut showcased his flash and toughness.
Flores defeated Jose Arellano by way of unanimous decision via scores of 95-93, 99-89 and 98-90 in the main event on “Wednesday Night Fights” here at the Chicken Ranch Casino Resort.
Flores, 24, dazzled early with his hand speed and counterpunching, sending Arellano to the ropes with a left hook in the first 10 seconds. Referee Michael Margado ruled that the ropes had held up the 30-year-old Arellano – although Flores admitted afterward that his early success ruined his game plan for the rest of the fight.
“I feel like the first round kind of messed me up,” Flores told BoxingScene after the fight. “I drop him and almost had him out of there in the first round. But after that, I kept inching when I should have been moving more and circling him. That is what I wasn’t doing until the later rounds.”
The theme of the fight was distance as Arellano was overextending at times, which led to head clashes – including one that opened a cut over Flores’ right eye.
Flores’ volume slowed in the middle rounds as Arellano began to turn the fight into a brawl, finding success in exchanges with Flores, who spent momentum on the ropes. A very pro-Flores crowd cheered loudly for their fighter, who had blood flowing from his eye. Flores’ movement proved elusive for Arellano, who nevertheless was the busier of the two.
The final rounds saw Arellano get more aggressive. As Arellano pressed the action, Flores’ punch volume began to dip. Javiel Centeno, Arellano’s coach, urged his fighter to go for a knockout. Flores responded by landing another check left hook that dropped Arellano, who continued to go for broke. Flores, not known as a big puncher, dropped Arellano against, and despite turning in his best round of the fight also made his work harder than it needed to be.
Flores, originally from Stockton, California, and now training and residing in Las Vegas, is on a five-fight winning streak. He is currently ranked No. 10 by the WBO and No. 12 by the WBA.
Flores is now 26-2 (8 KOs), while Arellano, of Aurora, Colorado, dropped to 11-3 (6 KOs). Arellano is now on a two-fight losing streak.
Lucas Ketelle took an unconventional path to boxing, eventually finding his stride in gyms and media. For the past decade, he has hosted the “Lukie Boxing” podcast, filmed training camps for fighters like Arnold Barboza Jnr, Mikey Garcia and Caleb Plant, and worked with top professionals such as Mike Bazzel. Ketelle is also an author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for ProBox TV, BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @LukieBoxing.
