By Ronnie Nathanielsz

With the rematch with light flyweight champion Javier Mendoza called off because of an injury to the champion, Zanfer Promotions has picked Maximino “Max” Flores as a replacement to face Milan Melindo (33-2, 12KOs) on May 28 at the St. La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City on the undercard of the WBO light flyweight title bout between Donnie Nietes and Raul “Rayito” Garcia.

Flores has a record 19-2 with 13 knockouts but rather significantly both defeats were by knockouts.

Flores lost by a 2nd round TKO to Valentin Leon in a four round bout on June 25, 2011 and then lost by a 2nd round TKO also in a four round bout on April 12, 2013 before winning a rematch on April 12, 2013.

In his last fight Flores scored a split decision win over Victor Sandoval on February 6 this year.

A ringside report said “The contests between these two promising near neighbors saw Flores emerge with a split decision victory although the judges came up with three very different views of the fight. Scores 80-73 and 78-77 for Ensenada’s Flores and 78-74 for Sandoval from Tijuana. Flores is 11-1, 2ND in his last 14 fights and has reversed the loss in those figures. Sandoval had won 10 of his last 11 fights but his 11 victims had only amassed 7 wins between them.”

Earlier, on February 14, 2015 Flores was involved in a no contest against Gilberto Parra due to an early clash of heads. A report on the fight said “It was a match with a good level of boxing and many emotions .” It said action began in the very first round and “ the initiative was taken by Maximino Flores, as he threw the frontal attack, with a good flow of blows mainly sent to the soft zone of  Gilberto Parra. “

It said “Parra spent a long time looking for the distance you would work better to attack, so his shots were not so frequent as to endanger Flores. Yes, Gilberto accommodated a pair of frilly both left-handed and right in the face and back Maximino but only a little.”

In the second round Flores attacked Parra and accumulated points before pushing him against the ropes to inflict  more punishment. But Parra had a moment of rough reaction and threw blows to the head of Flores and shook him up. But unfortunately during the action Flores was guilty of an accidental head-butt on the left eyebrow of Parra near the end of the second round.

Parra's corner tried to stop the bleeding on several occasions, but it was a large, deep and bleeding wound. The doctor checked the wound  of Parra and noted that it would be dangerous to allow him to continue with the fight.

Media reports said It was a promising bout and the stoppage because of an accidental head-butt dod not reflect what happened in the ring since it was not a dirty fight.