By Jake Donovan
Having come within a couple of rounds of winning a title and still remaining unbeaten, Jason Moloney has never wavered in confidence that he can run with the best bantamweights in the world.
The hard-hitting contender from Australia managed his second consecutive stoppage win following his near-miss versus then unbeaten 118-pound titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez last fall, the latest coming in a 3rd round knockout of Tanzania’s Goodluck Mrema. The bout was his second in just 11 weeks, both taking place in his adopted home state of New South Wales after having traveled to the United States for his aforementioned title fight.
“Hopefully my next fight will be for the WBA (World Boxing Association) title,” Moloney (19-1, 16KOs) stated after his latest win, which streamed live on ESPN+.
The 28-year old’s lone career loss came in the quarterfinals round of the World Boxing Super Series. Puerto Rico’s Rodriguez went on to suffer his own first defeat this past May, as he was stopped in the 2nd round of his semifinals clash versus Japan’s Naoya Inoue, who will now face Nonito Donaire in the WBSS finals later this year.
Inoue entered the tournament holding the secondary version of the WBA bantamweight title but has since added the International Boxing Federation (IBF) strap to his arsenal.
Donaire holds the “Super” version of the WBA title, which will create a vacancy at the “Regular” title level.
As silly as all of the alphabet madness sounds, it provides an avenue for the tournament winner to have a formidable challenger waiting in the wings. Having already come so close, Moloney has already begun the campaign to land the role of said awaiting fighter.
“We’re ready to take on anyone in the division. The WBA title has just become vacant, I want to fight the number one contender, Liborio Solis and we’re ready to make that fight happen,” insists Moloney. “Me and Andrew are so hungry and so determined.
“We want to bring home the world championships to Australia and we’re not going to take our foot off the (gas) pedal. We want the toughest fights out there. Throw us in the deep end; Andrew and I can swim.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox