By Cliff Rold

Steve Molitor might not ever get a chance to cash in on the cache garnered from the feud between current World Jr. Featherweight champion Israel Vasquez (42-4, 31 KO) and former champion Rafael Marquez (37-4, 33 KO).  It’s more likely that those fighters will have moved on to different divisions or the green grass of retirement before Molitor can get to them.

That doesn’t mean he won’t have a chance to replace them.  He, or hungry tigers like Celestino Caballero (28-2, 19 KO, WBA titlist), Daniel Ponce De Leon (34-1, 30 KO, WBO titlist), Sergio Medina (29-1, 17 KO) and Kiko Martinez (17-0, 14 KO); any of those talents could be the next to head the line.  Few, if any, will have the chance to collect the scalps of more established fare.

Molitor (26-0, 10 KO, IBF titlist), “The Canadian Kid,” kept himself in the running for the future with a reportedly dominant win last Saturday at Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada against Mexico’s Ricardo Castillo.  It marked his third defense of the belt he captured with a fifth round stoppage of then undefeated Michael Hunter in November 2006.  He’s a slick southpaw, but don’t confuse that with being boring even if that’s often the case with slick southpaws. 

Castillo (33-5, 22 KO), had lost two of his last three before the Molitor loss and was more notable for being the younger brother of former World Lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo than anything he’s done on his own.  Still, it was important simply as a win and a step forward.

That is because Molitor-Castillo was only one piece of a more interesting picture.  Jr. Featherweight has been a special place for much of this decade, producing three Ring Magazine Fight of the Year celebrants since 2000 (Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales I, Somsak Sithchatchawal-Mahyar Monshipour and Vasquez-Marquez II).  It will fall to the Molitor’s, Martinez’s and Caballero’s to maintain that sort of bloody momentum. 

It’s a high standard to uphold and there’s a great chance that none of them will.  It could be that, when Vasquez and Marquez are done, they’ll take what’s left of the last decade at Jr. Featherweight with them.  With 17 weight divisions, it’s hard to believe that 122 could maintain its consistency.

It would be more likely, more common, for 122 lbs. to experience the trend most weight divisions follow, cycling through a run of talent and than going dormant as the stars that emerged from a period of hot activity either a) keep fighting the same guys that made them hot; b) wait for more fights with the guys that made them hot by fighting no-hopers in the meantime; or c) move up in weight to keep fighting the guys that apply in a) and b).

Only four pounds above Molitor, that cycle can be witnessed firsthand.  When Erik Morales moved from 126 to 130 lbs. in 2004, Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao, and eventually Juan Manuel Marquez (not to mention Humberto Soto and Rocky Juarez) all followed suit.  The great Featherweight division became a division full of guys most people either haven’t seen or heard of while it waits for new forces to emerge.  

Is that cycle the fate awaiting 122 lbs.? 

It may not be.  Already, De Leon has been able to build a substantial following.  Not a great fighter by any stretch, his power makes him required viewing.  Medina and Martinez are quality young contenders who could one day make fine rivals.  Caballero hasn’t impressed since doing his Tommy Hearns-Pipino Cuevas impersonation on Sithchatchawal in the fall of 2006, but he does own a win over De Leon.

In other words, there is hope for the immediate future, hope that the division won’t have to be cast aside to wait for a star to emerge at some nebulous time and place ‘down the road.’  Steve Molitor is one of many who likely wouldn’t mind playing roadblock.

He isn’t a big name now, but if he keeps winning, he’ll probably get a chance to become one sooner than later when talk turns away from Marquez-Vasquez and towards De Leon…or Caballero…or…

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com