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Philippines, 26 Nov 2024 |
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Hopefully, There Won't be "Sentimental" Decisions for the Moloney Twin Brothers By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Thu, 11 May 2023  Moloney brothers. The ideal "dramatic" outcome is of course for both the Moloney twin brothers, Jason and Andrew, to come out victorious in their respective world title fights one week apart starting this Saturday, May 12, 2023 (Sunday May 13, 2023 Manila time) in the United States. For that will make them the first famous fighting brothers---twins at that--- to simultaneously win and hold world boxing titles since Leon and Michael Spinks achieved the distinction in the late 70s at heavyweight and light heavyweight. Certainly there have been notable fighting brothers to attain the feat from that time, the Klitschkos, Vladimir and Vitali and the Kameda trios of Koki, Daeki and Tomoki come to mind; but none as fast potentially if both Moloney twins win. But the Moloney twins, both 32 years old will not have the proverbial cakewalk given the quality and caliber of their opponents who are both established fighters. The bigger Jason (25-2, 19 KOs) will be up against tough Filipino Vincent Astrolabio for the vacant WBO bantamweight crown in Stockton, California this Saturday evening, May 12, 2023. Jason has fought and beaten at least half a dozen Filipino fighters but none closely approximating the quality of Astrolabio who has claimed the scalps of the usually hard to beat Cuban boxing legend Guillermo Rigondeaux and another tough bantamweight contender Vitali Potapov of Russia in his last two fights. 
What is therefore concerning is that oddsters have installed Jason Moloney as pre-fight favorite over Astrolabio notwithstanding that none of the fighters he has fought and beaten since losing by knockout in failed title attempt in 2020 to Naoya Inoue is anywhere close to Astrolabio or the fighters he has beaten lately, i.e. Rigondeaux and Potapov. But some observers say that before his resurgence, Astrolabio was an ordinary, beatable fighter as attested by his record (18-3, 13 KOs) that included a knockout loss to a Japanese fighter in 2018. That is what is raising concern about the possibility of sentimental driven decision in favor of Jason if the fight goes the full route and is very close. The slightly smaller Andrew Moloney, will have an even tougher opponent in Japanese unbeaten former WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani one week later, on May 20, 2023 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two will cross mitts for the vacant WBO super flyweight title as main support bout to Devin Haney's second defense of his undisputed world lightweight championship versus former titlist Vassily Lomachenko. Andrew has just two losses in his record (25-2, 16 KOs) and those were both inflicted via unanimous decision by American Joshua Franco in their three fights for the WBA regular super flyweight title with the other one ending in a no contest- no decision after two rounds that was hotly disputed by Moloney that he should have won by stoppage due to cut suffered by Franco. Nakatani as mentioned is unbeaten in 24 bouts with 18 ending via KO or TKO but all were scored at the lower flyweight class which might give the advantage to Moloney who has been fighting at super flyweight for some time now and has even fought as a bantamweight at one time. But that is not certain as Nakatani is a tall fighter with power who could box or slug it out. Again, the hope is that no sentimentality would stain this fight in favor of Andrew who like his twin brother Jason seems to be getting the breaks in landing world title bouts despite previous defeats. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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