The magnitude of Saturday?s fight at the CenturyLink Center isn?t lost on challenger John Molina Jr.
Everything the Covina, California, fighter has wanted in his boxing career will be on the table when he meets unified junior welterweight champion Terence ?Bud? Crawford in a title bout televised on HBO.
?Great fight, great opportunity,? Molina said. ?Everyone goes into this journey of being a professional fighter with one common goal ? to be a universally recognized world champion. With Crawford, that?s a one-stop shop. He?s a hell of a fighter, he?s undefeated and he?s done well. My job is to disrupt that.?
Molina (29-6, 23 KOs), who is ranked among the top three 140-pound contenders by three boxing organizations, is making his second bid for a world title. His first didn?t go well.
In September 2012, Molina (24-1 at the time) faced then-champion Antonio DeMarco for the WBC lightweight belt in Oakland, California. In the opening seconds, the southpaw champ caught the challenger with a straight left hand. Molina staggered backward toward the ropes, but fired back as DeMarco charged in. The challenger never went down, but the fight was stopped with him trapped in the corner.
Molina?s dream of becoming a world champion disappeared 44 seconds into the first round.
?That was my first fight under the big lights,? he said. ?There?s something about being a grizzled veteran, and I am now. I?ve experienced the peaks and valleys in this game. I?m going to bring that all with me.?
Molina?s route to a second title shot was neither quick nor easy. He knocked out a future lightweight champ (Mickey Bey) a year later. Then he endured a three-fight losing streak from 2014-15, dropping bouts with Lucas Matthysse, Humberto Soto and Adrien Broner. The fight with Matthysse, a back-and-forth duel in which both fighters hit the canvas multiple times, was named the 2014 fight of the year.
The California power-puncher bounced back with two straight wins following his March 2015 loss to Broner. In his last bout in June, he outslugged former WBO champ Ruslan Provodnikov over 12 rounds to earn a shot at Crawford?s WBC, WBO and Ring magazine belts on Saturday in the champ?s hometown.
?You learn from it,? Molina said. ?You take a step back. You go back to the drawing board. Your team puts on their thinking caps and you put together a game plan. It all came together with Provodnikov.?
The challenger hopes to continue his momentum against Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs), whom he?s praised throughout the events leading up to the fight, including Thursday?s final press conference at the arena.
?We know what we?re facing,? he said. ?It?s not like we?re going in there and guessing. Crawford?s a special, unique talent ? as his career shows. We give him respect. You have to. He has your undivided attention for a reason. I think we?re going to be able to enforce our will on them and get the job done.?
Molina and Crawford appeared to be on a collision course three years ago, when the latter fast-tracked his career with an impressive win over Breidis Prescott in his HBO debut. Molina had knocked out Dannie Williams two months earlier in his first bout back after the title-fight loss to DeMarco. Both fighters entered the ring again that summer, a week apart. Crawford stopped Alejandro Sanabria in six rounds, but Molina was on the losing end of a majority decision in a bout with Russian Andrey Klimov.
Crawford and Klimov then met that fall. Molina believes he and Crawford could?ve been fighting then.
?Believe it or not, I believe we were (going to),? he said. ?It just got a little postponed, that?s all. All great things do. I?m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. And that?s why it?s happening now.?
Crawford, at that point, was viewed as an up-and-coming prospect. Now, the unbeaten Omahan is widely considered to be among the top fighters in the world, and he has what Molina is chasing.
?I believe in my heart of hearts that I?m fighting the best guy in the division. And I think we?re going to make it a hell of a fight,? the challenger said. ?With all due respect to Crawford, this fight?s bigger than Crawford. He is the champion. That?s a goal that I want to accomplish. It just so happens that he?s standing in the way of that.?
