Danny Green, who holds the minor IBO cruiserweight trinket despite never fighting once at the full cruiserweight limit, will face BJ Flores on November 17 in Australia.
The fight is in a lot of ways the result of some pressure on Green, whose farce of a bout with a shot Paul Briggs earlier this year drew incredible criticism when the unprepared and unqualified Briggs went down and out on the a grazing "blow" just 29 seconds into the fight. The bout even drew some accusations of being fixed, but those are just accusations, of course, and for his part, Green seemed as dismayed as anyone after the fight.
Flores (24-0-1, 15 KO) has never endeared himself to boxing fans, but he's not a bad fighter by any stretch. He's gotten out of his deal with Square Ring Promotions and is putting himself right into a fight with one of the top money men in the division, as well as a fighter whose reputation is fairly strong at the moment, stemming from his TKO-1 of Flores' old boss, Roy Jones Jr., last December. Green has been fighting his bouts no higher than 185 pounds since his comeback last year, but will have to concede more than that for Flores, who has a heavyweight body type at 6'2" with an 80-inch reach.
Honestly, if Flores is in shape and motivated, a big part of me considers him the favorite against Green (30-3, 27 KO). Green can punch, but has never been confused with a solid technician. While Flores is not an exciting sort and doesn't bring tons of workrate or action to a fight, he can be a very effective boxer. Rust may be a factor for Flores, who hasn't fought since last August, and in his downtime even flirted with the idea of going into MMA, but Green himself hasn't been in a truly competitive fight in three years, and I doubt he'll have any designs on overwhelming Flores, who is in his prime years and is pretty sturdy.
The two will meet at Challenge Stadium in Perth.