Eric Molina in SERIOUS contention for Anthony Joshua’s next fight

By Boxing News - 04/23/2016 - Comments

Image: Eric Molina in SERIOUS contention for Anthony Joshua's next fightBy Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn has reportedly initiated talks with Eric Molina’s promoter Don King for a fight between the 33-year-old Molina and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

This is expected to be another fight that will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV. I’m not sure that Joshua vs. Molina is a PPV worthy fight, but that’s up to the British boxing public to decide.

Molina was knocked out last June by WBC middleweight champion Deontay Wilder in nine rounds. Since that fight, Molina, now ranked #12 by the World Boxing Council, has beaten Rodricka Ray and Tomasz Adamek to keep his career alive. The victory over Adamek, a 10th round KO, came earlier this month on April 2 in Krakow, Poland.

Molina was getting beaten by Adamek going into the 10th round, when all of a sudden Molina came alive to bang the smaller and much older 39-year-old Adamek out of there. Adamek had recently had also been beaten by Artur Szpilka. Hearn might as well add Szpilka to the list of candidates for Joshua to pick from for his June 25 fight.

If beating Adamek is the measuring stick to get a world title shot against Joshua, then Hearn should drag Szpilka into the ring to fight Joshua as well. He was knocked out by Deontay as well. Personally, I would tell Hearn to get lost if he ever mentioned Molina, Szpilka, Bermane Stiverne, or Johann Duhaupas as potential candidates for me to fight if I were Joshua. I mean, how can Joshua come out ahead by fighting Deontay’s leftovers?

I’m just saying. Where’s the victory in beating Deontay’s sloppy seconds? That’s me though. I would want to fight someone that hadn’t been beaten before. How do you get motivated to fight guys that Deontay recently beaten? To me, that just makes Joshua look like a follower rather than someone that is clearing a new path. Hearn needs more imagination in his match-making skills because those are weak choices. He’s putting Joshua in a one down position by following after Deontay and fighting his leftovers.

Molina, 33, reportedly is eager to fight Joshua, and why wouldn’t he? It’s a nice payday for Molina. He would be getting his second world title shot in his last four fights. I think it would be stupid for Joshua to fight him, but that’s on him.

The choices that Hearn has made for Joshua to pick from pretty much stink, as far as I’m concerned. Joshua needs to fight someone of quality like Joseph Parker, Carlos Takam, Kubrat Pulev [after he beats Dereck Chisora]., or Luis Ortiz. I’m sure that Hearn could easily get one of those guys to agree to a fight against Joshua if he throws money at them. They’re obviously not going to fight Joshua for chickenfeed, especially after the rumors of Charles Martin getting $4-6 million for his fight against him earlier this month. That fight brought in 600,000 PPV buys on Sky Box Office. Parker, Takam, Pulev and Ortiz would likely jump at the chance of making that kind of cash against Joshua.