By Ryan Burton
On May 10th, Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola will face each other at the Galen Center on the USC campus in a fight televised by ESPN for the vacant WBC heavyweight title. The fight will be a rematch of their April, 2013 bout that was won by Stiverne via unanimous decision.
In a recent conversation with BoxingScene.com, junior welterweight contender John Molina said that he believes Arreola will make the necessary adjustments to defeat Stiverne. Molina and Arreola are both promoted by the same promoter, Dan Goosen, but even though he is admittedly biased, Molina said that he thinks Arreola is much more hungry this time around with a world title at stake.
"I believe in my heart of hearts we will see something different. You can say that I am biased because me and Chris are friends outside of the ring but when Chris trains hard and prepares himself, I think you get the best Chris Arreola and I think the stage is set for him to make history.
Stiverne is a great fighter and he showed it the first time, but you got to remember Chris didn't get up for that fight and he didn't do himself justice and go to the gym and get in shape. In the first rounds before he broke his nose he did very well and even with the broken nose he was able to finish the fight. I think Chris is hungry this time and I am leaning towards him winning," said Molina.
Molina returns to the ring on April 26th at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. and will face hard hitting Argentine Lucas Matthysse. The equally hard hitting Molina will be moving up from the lightweight division and said that he will be even stronger with the additional weight and predicted that the fight will produce fireworks.
"It is going to be bombs away man. Two of the hardest hitters in the division. Now that I am at 140 I am going to be stronger. I don't think you will need judges. I think that it will come down to who is the last man standing.
A lot of people look at the (Antonio) DeMarco fight (who stopped Molina) but people have to remember that I am still learning on the job. I didn't turn pro until I was 24. It is going to be a very entertaining fight and I am going to surprise some people," Molina told BoxingScene.com.
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