Steve Molitor retires

By Boxing News - 02/05/2013 - Comments

molitor64644By Allan Fox: Former two-time IBF super bantamweight champion Steve Molitor (34-3, 12 KO’s) has reportedly retired from boxing after a 13-year pro career in the sport. Molitor, 32, had struggled recently, losing two out of his last three fights in the past two years in defeats against Takalani Ndlovu and Carl Frampton.

Molitor said to medicinehatnews.com “I’m more about being a father now. We live quite a bit west of Toronto now, so training full time is not an option.”

Even if Molitor were to keep training, it would be difficult for him to find a place in the super bantamweight division because it’s gotten stronger in the last two years. Molitor is still pretty much as good as he ever was.

The difference here is the 122 pound division has fighters like Wilfredo Vazquez Jr,, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Jeffrey Mathebula, Abner Mares, Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton, Victor Terrazaz, Vic Darchinyan and Takalani Ndlovu now. These are guys that Molitor likely would have never beaten even years ago when he was a little younger.

Molitor first captured the International Boxing Federation super bantamweight title back in 2006 when he beat Michael Hunter. Molitor then successfully defended his title five times before losing to Celestino Caballero by a 5th round stoppage in 2008. Molitor was able to recapture the IBF title two years later by beating Ndlovu.

However, he was only able to defend it successfully once in a harder than expected 12 round decision win over Jason Booth in September 2010. In Molitor then lost his next fight to Ndlovu by a 12 round decision. Molitor followed that with a 10 round majority decision win over the tough Sebastien Gauthier in November 2011, but in Molitor’s last fight against Frampton, he was hopefully out of his league and was blasted out in six one-sided rounds in September last year.

Had Molitor moved down to bantamweight, he might have been able to extend his career for another two or three years because the bantamweight division is really weak right now and there are opportunities for someone like him, but it doesn’t look like has too much interest in fighting anymore. Besides that, it’s unclear whether he could lose four extra pounds to get down to the 118 pound weight limit for the bantamweight division.



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