Gabriel Flores Jr to return on Wilder vs Fury 2 undercard

Earlier today we got word that Amir Imam will face Javier Molina on the Wilder-Fury 2 undercard on Feb. 22, and now Top Rank reportedly has another fight set for the show, with Mike Coppinger reporting that top prospect Gabriel Flores Jr will be in action.

The 19-year-old Flores (16-0, 8 KO) will be facing 24-year-old Matt Conway (17-1, 7 KO) in an eight-round junior lightweight bout. Like Imam-Molina, Flores-Conway will be part of the prelim show airing on FOX and ESPN. Neither fight is part of the pay-per-view undercard, which Bob Arum has previously said will be just two fights instead of the traditional three before the main event, with Top Rank and PBC producing one each. The prelims will have six fights, three from each side, and Top Rank seem to have two in the can already.

Flores is a prospect Top Rank are excited about, young with a lot of upside, and perhaps a bit more power than his record might indicate early on. He flashed some of that power in May of last year at home in Stockton, California, knocking out Eduardo Pereira dos Reis in the third round, a true one-shot effort. He’s won his last three by decision since then, but we may be waiting for the vaunted MAN STRENGTH!!!!!!!!!!!! to kick in for the teenager, too.

Conway, a fighter out of Pittsburgh, ran his record up at small shows before a loss in Reno to Francisco Esparza on Oct. 26, an eight-round split decision on Top Rank’s Stevenson-Gonzalez card. He’s not considered any sort of blue chipper the way Flores may be, but Esparza is a tough fighter himself, it’s not the worst loss.

This figures to be a Flores showcase, yes, but it’s getting a young fighter with high hopes on a big card.