Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua Set To Defend Title Against Eric Molina 12/10/16

[RuslanChagaev]

Pulev, Ortiz, Browne, Jennings, Chisora, and Ustinov were available and he picks Molina

I think Kubrat Pulev wants to fight in his hometown Sofia/Bulgaria. I heard something like this. I agree with you about other options.

[TheCleaner]

Agreed. Once Klitschko decided not to fight AJ/suffered an "injury", then the options for AJ became limited. Not many good names available. Price and Chisora are no better than Molina.

I still can't see what made the Browne fight difficult to make...

[E10Rifle]

I still can't see what made the Browne fight difficult to make...

Browne wants to fight for his old WBA title. He's little better than Molina anyway. Same goes for Price, Chisora etc.

Obviously Ortiz was mentioned earlier, but I'd rather not see a drug cheat get a shot.

Pulev is probably the only realistic option that would have been a genuine step up in class, though he has been busy chasing Parker for a final eliminator.

Again, I'll reiterate that no-one actually wants the Parker/Haye/Wlad fights jeopardised - including the fans like us - so who gives a f***. Molina will get removed within four rounds, we'll learn nothing new; the haters will continue to call AJ a hype job (despite all evidence to the contrary) and the fanboys will cream themselves over his shiny muscles. Plus çe change. Shame Wlad got injured/"injured"*.

*delete as appropriate for your personal conspiracy levels.

[KillaCamNZ]

No real surprise here.

Disappointing, to say the least. But there was no chance Uncle Eddie was going to take on a fight that had any risk.

And this is absolutely a zero risk fight.

AJ in 3, if that.

[BostonGuy]

I'm not terribly upset over Joshua picking Eric Molina. Joshua only has 17 pro fights under his belt and he's still developing as a fighter. Better to not to rush him and let him develop rather than get him ****** up and worn out by the time he's in his late 20s. Longevity is the name of the game.

[SN!PER]

This fight is a good sign.

Joshua targeting a Wilder opponent means a Joshua - Wilder showdown is closer than ever.

[BigZ44]

I'm not terribly upset over Joshua picking Eric Molina. Joshua only has 17 pro fights under his belt and he's still developing as a fighter. Better to not to rush him and let him develop rather than get him ****** up and worn out by the time he's in his late 20s. Longevity is the name of the game.

This is the correct comment and something people seem to forget due to the fact that Joshua has already achieved stardom in the UK. While it's arguable if Molina is Joshua's best opponent to date, he's the most experienced at the top level after Kingpin Johnson and certainly much more dangerous than him. Joshua has a long career ahead of him and is only making the second defense of his belt. Hell it wasn't that long ago that people thought he was being thrown in with Kingpin, Sprott and Skelton too early.

Molina is a decent opponent and there will be better fights to come. Parker and Klitschko both decided that there were easier ways to get a belt and it left the fans in a bit of a disappointing situation, but there are plenty of big fights looming on the horizon in the heavyweight division, its just going to take a little while longer to get there.