The president of the World Boxing Association, Gilberto Mendoza, made it clear that Andrew Moloney should be the next opponent of WBA super flyweight world champion Román 'Chocolatito' González - despite the intentions that exist to make a unification against WBC champion Juan Francisco 'Gallo' Estrada.
Mendoza explained that although he supports the unification between 'Chocolatito' (49-2, 41 KO's) and Estrada, there are legal channels that allow Moloney (21-0, 14 KO's ) to assert himself as the future opponent of the Nicaraguan star, who just captured the title with a knockout of Khalid Yafai.
"On the part of the WBA, a piece of news that may not please many fans," Mendoza warned ESPN Deportes. "Because there is a pre-match agreement where Maloney was required to face the winner of the Yafai and Chocolatito fight."
The issue with doing Chocolatito vs. Estrada first, is that Moloney's representatives made sure that he was in direct position to get an immediate crack at the Chocolatito vs. Yafai winner. Moloney holds the WBA's "regular" title.
"It will be quite complicated [to get around Moloney and do Chocolatito-Estrada], because they were very passionate, with the legality and everything else, they hired lawyers, so that Moloney would not lose that opportunity to fight with Chocolatito. Moloney says that he is ready to fight and wants show what he is made of, so it will be a controversial issue the moment it comes up,” said Mendoza.
Moloney has already traveled over to the United States for an interim-fight, and next month he is scheduled to return to the ring as part of Top Rank's series of shows in Las Vegas.
Chocolatito's big win over Yafai took place back in February. He dropped and stopped Yafai in the ninth round in Frisco, Texas - as part of the Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas undercard.