John Molina Knows That He Must Have Better Defense

By Robert Morales

When a fighter is ranked in the top 10 by all four major governing bodies, he probably should have better defense than John Molina showed last Friday when he stopped not-so-heavy-hitting Robert Frankel after five rounds in the lightweight main event at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif.

Molina’s head was an easy target and if Frankel could punch harder – he has five knockouts in 40 fights – Molina could have been in trouble. As it was, Molina (23-1, 19 KOs) at one point seemed to be hurt by a flurry of punches. The good thing is, Molina is fully aware of his problem and he made no bones about it when he spoke to a reporter from BoxingScene.com afterward.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m going to give myself a 4 for this one,” said Molina, 28, of Covina, Calif. “We know I got hit too much in this one; that’s always the mark on me. But again, it’s only my second fight under the tutelage of (trainers) Mario and Ray Morales. I’m never satisfied. Entertaining fight, nonetheless.”

Molina was previously trained by Joe Goossen and before that Ben Lira.

“We did what we had to do; we got him out of there,” said Molina, who turned Frankel’s face into a bloody mask. “And right now we’re just ironing out all the details – iron out the wrinkles, if you will. I’m trying to utilize more the jab. Me, in my eyes, I felt my defense was a little bit better, which means it must have been horrible because I still got hit. It’s a work in progress.”