Janelson Figueroa-Bocachica vs. Luis Eduardo Flóres Suárez

Saturday at the Performance Arts Center in Dearborn, MI.

JFB is a 21 year old, born in Puerto Rico but long residing in Detroit and sharpening his craft there under various Kronk alumnae's tutelage. He is generating buzz and will be the favorite here against Flóres Suárez, eleven years his elder - but make no mistake, he is taking a big step up in class here and facing a real & present danger, in spite of the Colombian's ugly record.

About that... in his early career, the Magangué native, trained by Miguel "Ñato" Guzmán, went 15-1 (13) before scoring a shock 90 second blitz KO upset in 2014 over previously unbeaten Mexican prospect (and future/currently reigning super featherweight champion, with six WBC title defenses and counting) Miguel "Alacrán " Berchelt - to date, Berchelt's only loss. Since then, however? Flóres Suárez is just 9-13 (7), knocked out eight times including the last four in a row on his current five loss slump.

Did he suddenly transform overnight into the "glass cannon" stereotype associated so frequently with Colombians in boxing, after securing himself a high water mark victory that would only improve with age, but denote him a "one hit wonder"? Or was that what he always was, and he just happened to score a lucky fluke knockout against somebody that went on achieve success well beyond that level? Or, was he a real talent, subsequently ruined by circumstances?

Around the same period he stopped Berchelt, he was on record as having some managerial & promotional issues with Felix "Tutico" Zabala, the same chief of All Star Boxing that levied a lawsuit against Golden Boy Promotions and Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez for alleged breach of contract (and was successfully awarded 8.5 million dollars, although state level appeals saw that overturned and some lower settlement figure redetermined between the parties involved). He claimed that Zabala had made some underhanded arrangement with domestic promoters in Flóres' own Colombia, claiming to have the fighter out more or less "on loan" and taking half of his purses directly from them. He says Zabala paid him much smaller amounts than he was owed, and threatened him with squashing his work visas in different countries if he complained - thus effectively rendering him unable to earn a living, since he was barely scratching by with the pittance he got when he fought at home. With all those distractions, one can make the argument that Flóres was doomed to never capitalize on what could have been a door-opening performance. His schedule after Berchelt had been ridiculously hard, for the most part, so 13 losses - even with eight by stoppage - is somewhat forgivable.

This is Figueroa-Bocachica's latest victory, over Gábor "The Squirrel" Görbics, this past May:

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(he retired the Hungarian after three rounds...by contrast, Görbics took Spike O'Sullivan the full eight rounds without even getting knocked down last December)

...and here is Flóres vs. Berchelt:

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Hopefully this gets streamed on Facebook or something.