WBA orders Santa Cruz vs. Mares

Image: WBA orders Santa Cruz vs. Mares

By Dan Ambrose: The WBA has ordered a WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) to face WBA World featherweight champion Abner Mares (30-2-1, 15 KOs). The management for the two fighters has 30 days to try and negotiate the fight before the World Boxing Association orders a purse bid. This move by the WBA is part of their efforts to decrease the amount of titles they have in each weight division.

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Crawford-Molina averages 806K viewers on HBO

Image: Crawford-Molina averages 806K viewers on HBO

By Chris Williams: Last Saturday’s title fight between WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) and John Molina Jr. (29-7, 23 KOs) averaged 806,000 viewers on HBO with a peak of 871,000 viewers. Crawford-Molina brought in better ratings than the Showtime main event between WBA World featherweight champion Jesus Cuellar and Abner Mares, which turned out to be the far superior fight compared to the mismatch between Crawford and Molina Jr.

The Crawford-Molina fight was supposed to be a mismatch. Molina was picked out for the Crawford fight despite having lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. One of the losses Molina suffered was a bad one-sided 12 round decision to Adrien Broner last year in which Molina Jr. did almost nothing for 12 rounds.

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Crawford says Errol Spence Jr. is good fight for him

Image: Crawford says Errol Spence Jr. is good fight for him

By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) says he would be open to a fight against unbeaten welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in the near future. However, Crawford says that he thinks Spence Jr. is going to be moving up in weight to the 154lb division. Spence hasn’t been talking about wanting to move up, so it’s unclear where Crawford got that information from.

Spence plans on fighting IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in early 2017, and then looking to fight the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman fight to unify the titles. Spence could potentially finish 2017 in holding three of the four titles at 147. The only belt not in Spence’s possession would be the WBO title held currently by Manny Pacquiao.

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Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr – Results

Image: Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr – Results

By Chris Williams: Unbeaten WBA/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) held onto his titles in stopping #1 WBA, #2 WBC, #2 WBO challenger John Molina Jr. (29-7, 23 KOs) in the 8th round on Saturday night in front of a large crowd of Crawford fans at the CenturyLink Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Crawford ran around the ring most of the fight, jabbing, holding, jabbing and pot shotting the very slow 33-year-old Molina Jr.

In the 8th, Crawford suddenly stopped moving and threw a flurry of shots that hurt Molina Jr. Crawford then finished Molina off with three right hands to the head and right to the body. The referee Mark Nelson then halted the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:32 of the 8th.

Crawford said afterwards that he feels he should be 2016 ‘Fighter of the Year’ for his wins over Molina Jr., Hank Lundy and Viktor Postol.

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Molina apologizes to fans for missing weight for Crawford fight

Image: Molina apologizes to fans for missing weight for Crawford fight

By Chris Williams: John Molina Jr. came in 4 pounds over the limit on Friday in weighing in at 144lbs for his title fight against WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford at the CenturyLink Arena in Omaha, Nebraska.

Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs) says he took all the weight that he could in training camp, but he couldn’t lose the last 4 pounds. He’s outgrown the 140lb weight class, which isn’t surprising given that he’s 33-years-old now and he’s tall at 5’10”. It’s a wonder that Molina Jr. was able to make 140 at all in the past considering he’s huge for the weight class.

You can argue that some of Molina’s past defeats might be due to him having to drain down to a weight that isn’t right for his body size. Molina Jr. did make 140 for his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov last June. Molina fought well in beating the Russian Provodnikov by a 12 round unanimous decision. He didn’t look weak for the fight.

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Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr – Official Weights

Image: Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr - Official Weights

By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) weighed in successfully on Friday in coming in 139.6 pounds for his title defense against an emaciated looking challenger John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs) at the CenturyLink Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. The Crawford-Molina fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing.

Also being televised by HBO on the same night is heavyweights Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr. fighting for the vacant WBO heavyweight title. That fight will be taking place at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.

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