by David P. Greisman
John Molina had a tough stretch over the course of about 10 months.
He’d lost in a barnburner of a battle with Lucas Matthysse in April 2014, dropping Matthysse twice but being broken down and stopped late. Then he was outpointed by Humberto Soto that September and dropped a wide decision to Adrien Broner in March 2015.
Molina says he wasn’t what he should’ve been for the Soto and Broner fights. And he says he’s an even better version of himself now.
Molina credits his new trainer, Shadeed Saluki, whom he worked with for several months before his June 2016 decision win over Ruslan Provodnikov, as well as his strength and conditioning coach.
“With what he’s doing to me physically and body preparedness and performance-wise, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find anybody that’s going to be able to stay with me,” Molina told BoxingScene.com.
Molina touted the results that showed in the Provodnikov fight, when he came out with a different style than the brawling approach people expected.
“From all my fights, all you saw was barnburners, taking three to get one. People didn’t think I could alter my style for a guy like Provodnikov,” Molina said. “I did. I showcased the jab. I threw over 700 jabs [he was 152 of 643, according to CompuBox]. I threw over 1,000 punches [he was 377 of 1,092], which you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a guy who threw 1,000 punches in my division in recent time.
“With that, I didn’t want to give Provodnikov his only benefit, which was to sit there and bang with me, although I gave him enough that showed him that I wasn’t going anywhere, but then I used my God-given attributes: my height, my reach, my ring savviness,” he said. “I think fans didn’t think I had that element to my game, and now they’re well aware of that. Yes, my nickname is ‘The Gladiator,’ but I believe I’m also an enigma because you don’t know how to prepare for me.”
His losses came against very good fighters in Matthysse and Broner. But many still wrote Molina off ahead of the Provodnikov fight because of how he didn’t look like his usual self against Broner and Humberto Soto.
“I don’t want to knock anybody. I didn’t get up for those fights,” Molina said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Humberto Soto. The fight with Broner, I didn’t give my all in preparation for that fight. I should have. I want to tell the fans they have every fight to be upset. It should’ve been a barnburner. It should’ve been a hell of a fight. I was not prepared for it.
“That’s not to discredit both those fighters. Humberto Soto is a hell of a fighter. He was a world champion for good reason. Adrien Broner, although I don’t agree with his antics outside the ring, is a very talented fighter nonetheless. I didn’t have the answers to the questions that he had, the way he moved and whatnot. Now I have some answers. It was a learning experience. I don’t chalk it up as a complete loss, although it’s one of those fights that bothers me.”
But he was in better form for the Provodnikov bout.
“It’s because I’m putting in the work. Out of 10 years of being a professional prizefighter, there’s no secret, there’s no remedy, there’s no magic sauce, there’s no potion. It’s hard work. If you work hard, you’re going to get the results,” he said. “I was putting in the hard work [before in his career] to the best of my knowledge. But I got the right team in order [now]. Everyone has this kind of throw the crap on the wall if it sticks approach to performance training.
“It almost like someone’s trying to color a picture, and they color the whole page and don’t color inside the lines,” he explained. “Boxing is a very specific sport. If you get the right team involved, you can focus on the very specific things you need to be prepared for. … Now I’m going to have an edge over everybody.”
Molina hasn’t fought since the Provodnikov bout and didn’t get a fight with Danny Garcia this fall, but BoxingScene.com revealed on Friday that Molina has reached an agreement to challenge WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) on December 10th. The HBO televised main event will take place in Crawford's backyard of Omaha, Nebraska. Crawford's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, advised BoxingScene that both fighters are in the process of signing contracts.
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
