By Eric Thomas: Undefeated lightweight prospect John Molina (11-0, 8 KOs) defeated Carlos Madrid (8-5-2, 2 KOs) on Friday night by six-round unanimous decision at the Expo Center, in the City of Industry, California. Molina, 25, showed some decent skills in the process of pounding out a relatively easy decision, but he also showed some major flaws that he needs to work on before considering stepping up against better opponents than the 30 year-old Madrid. The final judges’ scores were 58-56, 58-56 and 59-55, all for Molina.
In the first round, Molina opened up with fast jabs, snapping Madrid’s head back repeatedly. However, it was Molina’s combinations which showed his real talent, as he put together blistering fast shots that most of the time connected dead on the mark.
Where Molina began to show flaws, however, was in the second round when Madrid began to find some minor success by pressuring Molina up against the ropes, where he was able to keep him there for sustained periods of time. Molina was mostly ineffective on the ropes, not able to get off his own punches and forced to try and block Madrid’s shots. He didn’t have too much problems in that department because Madrid was mostly inept at punching and missed the majority of the time, even with a target like Molina squarely in front of him. Still, some shots from Madrid did get through, and what was alarming was that Molina would just stay there rather than being aware of enough to fight his way off the ropes. When Molina would get off the ropes. Madrid would immediately bull him back into that position, making him fight there for most of the round.
Molina fought well in the third round, firing off left-right combinations to the head of Madrid. Though the punches were fast, they didn’t seem to have much of an effect on Madrid, who took them without any signs of being hurt. As in the other rounds, Madrid kept Molina on the ropes and the two exchanged at close quarters for most of the round. Molina on occasion would fire off quick combinations, but he was unable to get any power on his shots due to his back being to the ropes. He attempted a few uppercuts, but it was clear that he didn’t know how to throw it properly as it had no power and zero impact on Madrid.
In the 5th round, Molina began moving more, throwing his jab and circling the ring. Madrid gamely plodded after him, waiting for Molina to slow down and stop. Once Molina came to a stop, Madrid bulled him back to the ropes where he’d land one out of every eight punches thrown. Unfortunately for Madrid, he was an even weaker puncher than Molina, hence his shots had no effect on Molina.
Molina opened up with some nice combinations in the 6th round, firing them off with the speed that he had in the 1st round. However, Madrid pushed him back into the ropes and the two spent much of the remainder of the round trying to get room to thrown shots. Not particularly interesting to watch, I must admit.
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