By Allan Fox: The International Boxing Federation (IBF) has ordered IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO’s) to defend his title next against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Cornelius Bundrage (33-5, 19 KO’s). Al Haymon, the adviser for #10 IBF Jermall Charlo (18-0, 11 KO’s) was reportedly lobbying the IBF to have them give Molina permission to bypass the fight against the 41-year-old Bundrage and instead let Molina face the 24-year-old Charlo, but instead the IBF ordered Molina to fight Bundrage.
Molina hasn’t fought since defeating former IBF junior middleweight champion Ishe Smith by a 12 round last September.
The Molina-Bundrage fight negotiations are expected to start soon. It’s a good match-up because Bundrage likes to punch and he’ll take the fight right to Molina and we could see a war if Molina doesn’t spent too much time clinching like he usually does.
Bundrage previously held the IBF 154 lb. title from 2010 to 2013, when he lost the belt to Ishe Smith. Bundrage captured the title with a 5th round stoppage win over Cory Spinks in August of 2010, and he defended it twice successfully in defeating Sechew Powell and Spinks again.
Molina has a way of smothering the offense of his opponents. The one exception was when he was beaten by James Kirkland by a 10th round disqualification.
Jermall Charlo hasn’t faced anyone that even hints at being a good fighter yet, and his ranking is way too high given the type of opposition that he’s faced during his short career. Charlo’s best win of his career thus far as come against ESPN regular Antwone Smith. He also has recent wins over Hector Munoz (22-12), Joseph De los Santos (17-11), and Rogelio De la Torre (10-3). Charlo needs to start facing some quality opponents before he fights for a world title because right now he’s still fighting mediocre opposition. It would be nice to see Charlo fight someone like Alfredo Angulo, and Gabriel Rosado.
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