Giovanni Cabrera remained undefeated, defeating former prospect Gabriel Flores Jr. by unanimous decision in Hinckley, Minn., in the first-class joint main event.
Gabriel Flores Jr. is signed. By Top Rank at 17, hoping to one day become the world champion. Those hopes were likely dashed forever after he suffered his second career defeat to Giovanni Cabrera on Saturday, July 23.
It took Cabrera just seven seconds to drop Flores for the first time at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota. The straight left of the Cabrera placed off the southpaw position Flores on the seat of his pants. Flores got up on unsteady legs.
Near the last minute of the round, Cabrera Flores lost for the second time. Flores got up again and survived a powerful attack from Cabrera to close out a horribly lopsided round.
This was Flores’ first fight as a lightweight, and he didn’t fit well into the higher weight class. He put his legs back under him in the second round, but took a header from Cabrera in the third and hit the deck for the third time in the fifth.
Cabrera (21-0, 7 KOs) hit Flores with a right hook that pushed him down. Flores protested, saying he was hit in the back of the head, but it was a clean bullet.
Giovanni Cabrera made a statement on ESPN+ as he knocked down Gabriel Flores Jr. three times en route to a unanimous decision win.
Flores (21-2, 7 KOs) finished the round but needed a knockout to win, but that never happened. He had a few moments, but Cabrera was very powerful and meticulous. Swelling developed under Flores’ left eye, and the wound eventually opened.
In the corner before the tenth and final round, Flores looked like he was about to cry. You may feel disappointed in him during the fight, and his career may have slipped away.
The work was interrupted briefly in Round 10 because the center of the rink looked like an ice rink. Both fighters slipped on the center emblem, covered in sweat. When the fight resumed, Cabrera went to work, hitting Flores with several shots to close out the competition.
All three judges scored the fight 98-89 for Cabrera. The Cabrera was a Chicago Golden Glove champion but lacked the accomplishments of the Flores amateurs.
Flores was a 12-time Amateur National Champion. according to him web pageFlores Amateur scored 91-7.
Cabrera’s big break as a pro came after Freddy Roach began coaching him. Cabrera learned as Mane Pacquiao’s sparring partner and looks like a very different boxer today than he did earlier in his career.
Flores lost for the first time in 2021 to Luis Alberto Lopez. The loss shows once again and in a bad way that Flores may have reached the ceiling of his talent, while Cabrera has proven that he is still improving at the age of 28.
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