By Sam Gregory: In tonight’s main event of the June 5th edition of ESPN2 Friday Night Fight’s from the Mahi Shrine in Miami, Florida Carlos Molina is stepping in as a substitute for Carlos Quintana to take on veteran fighter Danny Perez in a scheduled 12 round bout for the NABO Jr middleweight title.
32 year old Danny Perez with a record of 34 wins and 5 losses, 17 wins coming by way of knockout, is considered the underdog by odds makers against the 26 year old Mexican born Carlos Molina who goes into this fight with a record of 16 wins and 4 losses, 5 wins by way of knockout.
Round 1 Perez came out fast and hard and went straight to the body of Molina. Molina landed a good left hook countering off Perez’ jab while Perez was able to physically push Molina back and tie up. It looked like Molina’s round.
Round 2 Perez landed his jab hard while Molina countered and landed a good combination to the body. Molina tied up, Perez punched out and landed a couple hard shots to the body. Molina threw his jab than tied Perez up, Perez was able to punch out and finish strong. Molina’s round again.
Round 3 Perez liked to bob and weave and come up throwing his jab, Molina countered off Perez’ jab and landed a couple good hard shots to the body. Both fighters fought from the center of the ring, Molina seemed to have the more accurate shots; Perez was wilder with his punches that Molina was able to block.
Round 4 while Perez tied up Molina was able to let his hands go, in close Molina landed a couple good uppercuts and was able to keep his distance and avoid most of Perez’ punches. Molina was in control most of this round.
Round 5 Molina’s punch output was way down in this round. Molina fought out of that “peek-a-boo” style while throwing and landing good uppercuts to the body. Perez wasn’t able to connect with accuracy while Molina was able to land and score at will.
Round 6 Perez again came out looking strong throwing his jab but Molina blocked and countered off Perez’ jab. Both men tied up and muscled each other around than punched out; Molina had the much better defense, Perez had most of his shots blocked this round.
Round 7 Molina has had the higher punch output so far in this fight. Molina was throwing and landing good solid shots, landed an uppercut that rocked Perez. Molina landed a straight right hand that was probably the best thrown punch of the fight.
Molina has out thrown and out landed Perez, he could have easily won every round
Round 8 Molina landed a solid shot to Perez’ head; Perez moved a lot but not out of range for Molina who kept throwing hard solid shots. Molina countered and scored with most of his punches.
Round 9 Perez came out throwing his jab but Molina blocked his shots and countered going to the body and landed the harder more accurate shots. Molina had Perez against the ropes and landed some good shots to the head of Perez. They tied up, separated by the ref as Molina looked like he was breathing harder as the round ended.
Carlos Molina suffered a cut above the right eye
Round 10 both men throwing their jab, Perez began landing a few more punches. They tied up, the ref separates the two Perez was able to land his jab a bit more this round. Molina’s work rate has slowed a great deal; Perez is winning these later rounds.
Round 11 Perez went to the body and started dictating the direction of the fight. Perez started landing with his right hand, again they tied up in the center of the ring, and then punched out. Molina pushed Perez against the ropes, Perez was able to punch out, and both men’s punch output decreased by a lot.
Round 12 both men throwing their jab, tied up then punched out. Molina looked tired but was able to take the offense away from Perez. Both men tied up and Molina punched out. In the last seconds of the round Molina let loss with a flurry of punches to end the round.
The fight went to the judge’s scorecards: 118-110, 119-109 for the winner by unanimous decision Carlos Molina.
Molina improves to 17-4 with 5 KO’s; Perez fell to 34-6 with 17 KO’s