Manuel Flores and Jorge Chávez are back in front of each other tomorrow night at Palm Desert and live in DAZN. This one carries a WBA Continental USA strap. Around gyms, those belts are treated as currency rather than crowns. They move fighters along ranking lists and little else. Still, they shape decisions, and both camps know the winner leaves with leverage.
Their first fight last July never found a clean line. One card leaned heavily toward Chávez. The other two sat square. That tells you enough about how the rounds landed and how uneven the scoring was.
What the first fight actually showed
Flores started fast. Heavy shots early. Straight lefts that backed Chávez up and forced respect. He boxed like a man expecting the night to shorten. By the middle rounds, the pace began to catch him.
Chávez stayed busy and stayed upright. His output climbed as Flores slowed, feet working laterally while punches came in clusters rather than singles. It was not dominance, just steady accumulation, the kind that looks different depending on where you sit.
The draw felt inevitable once it went long.
Conditioning and comfort under pressure
The rematch puts the responsibility squarely on Flores. Power has never been the question. Sustaining it has. When the exchanges stretched and the tempo rose, his defense opened and his feet stalled.
Chávez already answered one important question. He can take Flores’ best shots and continue to work. His approach depends on volume and angles, not damage in bursts. That style plays well in rematches when the opponent already knows the force coming back at him.
The WBA label attached to this fight promises movement, not security. Even a win does not guarantee protection or clarity. It only buys attention for the next negotiation.
Technically, this comes down to whether Flores can manage pace without giving away late rounds, or whether Chávez can turn activity into cleaner scoring this time. Neither outcome rewrites the division. One of them gets pushed forward anyway.
If the fight reaches the final third at a steady tempo, Chávez’s style reads better. If Flores forces damage early and keeps enough in reserve, the judges have fewer choices.
I don’t get why people keep saying Chávez is better just because he moves more. Moving don’t mean you winning. Flores hits harder, and that’s what matters in a fight. Power counts more than dancing around the ring.