Molina Still Wants Omar Figuaroa, Yuriorkis Gamboa

By Luis Sandoval

2013 was full of ups and downs for John Molina Jr but he got one of the sweetest and most dramatic wins of his career in his last fight when he stopped undefeated Mickey Bey in the final minute of their 10 round bout. It was a must a win situation for Molina and he’s now back on the road to get another shot at a world title.

Molina will be fighting on the Andre Ward-Edwin Rodriguez undercard on November 16th against an opponent yet to be named. This will be a stay busy fight for Molina as he is gearing up for 2014 and looking for a big name fight.

One name that Molina has been calling out for some time now is current WBC Lightweight champion Omar Figueroa who put on a fight of the year candidate with Nihito Arakawa this past July. The 5’10 ½ tall Molina is thinking of venturing into the 140 pound division but states that Figueroa is a reason he’d stay at 135.

“Right now what we're going to do is see where we want to be at. I think to campaign at 140 would be a great opportunity for me given the names that are there. This fight will possibly be at 140 or maybe 139 or 138 just to keep it in between. But again, the only guy I can see it being feasible to stick around 135 for is [Omar] Figueroa and every time we keep mentioning the fight his hands hurt” Molina would tell BoxingScene.

“So we got to wait and see what Figueroa is going to do and judging off some of his last interviews, it looks like he's having a hard time making 135 too. So we'll see what happens. I think Figueroa is the only feasible fight for me at 135 unless [Yuriorkis] Gamboa would want to get it on but we haven't heard from Gamboa in a while”.

Molina is one of the few fighters today that has the luxury of being able to fight on either HBO or Showtime and against both Golden Boy and Top Rank fighters as he’s with neutral promoter Goosen Tutor. While he’d welcome fights with both Figueroa or Gamboa at Lightweight, one fight he doesn’t think will happen anytime soon is a rematch with the man he defeated this past July.

“Those guys never asked for a rematch. Mickey Bey keeps hammering and hollering 'John Molina wouldn't want a rematch'. Come on. Settle down, take your wounds and lick them up, heal up and go on to be a good fighter. He is a good fighter but let’s not blow smoke up peoples butts and say that you've been hollering for a rematch cause you haven't. And your team has not. So let's put that to bed right now Mickey” said the hard hitting Molina.

Molina said he’d take a rematch if the offer was right for Bey but he’s more focused on landing bigger named fighters and fighting for a world title. He will look to stay busy and feels 2014 will be a big year for him.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter and Instagram @Truewest007.