By Dan Ambrose: Former world title challenger Eric Molina (25-3, 19 KOs) is hoping to capitalize on his 10th round knockout victory from last Saturday night over former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek (25-3, 19 KOs) to try and get a title shot against the winner of this Saturday’s fight between IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) and Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs).
Molina, 6’4”, feels that he has a good chance of facing the winner of the Martin-Joshua fight because of his spectacular one-punch knockout of the 39-year-old Adamek in their fight at the Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland. At the time of the stoppage, Molina was trailing by the scores of 88-83, 88-83, and 88-83.
“I start slow all the time,” Molina said after the fight. “The thing about me is I use my mind first. Once I use my mind, my mind gets stronger every round. So does my punches, and so does my ability to throw certain shots. I’m a counter puncher. I knew it was a matter of time. I knew he was opening up every time. His corner was telling him to throw more punches. When I saw that, I knew it was a matter of time. I could have ended the fight with either hand at any given moment. I showed the world I could do it. Tomasz Adamek (50-5, 30 KOs) is a great warrior. He’s got an iron chin. He ran into a big right hand. I don’t think he’s ever been counted out like that. He ran into a big punch, but I’m a big guy. I want the big fights. I’m going to England. I want the winner of Joshua-Martin. They got a one-year mandatory, but they can fight me because I’ll be ranked high. I want the winner of the fight. We can do it here in Poland. I don’t care. I love Poland, and I want the winner. Let’s make the big fight. The ultimate goal is to become the first Mexican American champion. I will wake up every day and put everything I have into that,” said Molina.
It would be a real stretch for Molina, 33, to be getting a fight against the winner of the Martin vs. Joshua fight, because Molina has nothing really to offer either of them. Molina isn’t a world champion, and he was knocked last year by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Molina is only a big deal right now in Poland because he beat the aging past his best 39-year-old Adamek. Molina didn’t beat a world champion; he beat an old fighter that had lost two out of his last three fights going into last Saturday’s contest.
Molina will likely get a bump up in the World Boxing Council’s rankings with this win over Adamek, but it’s not going to be enough of a push to bring him to the No.1 spot. It won’t be a push up in the IBF’s rankings, and that’s where Molina needs to be ranked high for him to have a chance to fight the winner of the Martin-Joshua fight.
Molina says he wants to become the first Mexican-American to win a heavyweight world title. He’s going to need to keep pushing slowly to make that happen because the win over Adamek isn’t going to be enough to get Molina a second world title shot. What he needs is a win over someone ranked high or against interim WBA champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz. I don’t think that would be a winnable fight for Molina right now. He starts too slowly for him to have a chance to beat someone as good as Ortiz.
There’s no way that Molina should have been behind as much as he was in the Adamek fight. For him to beat the likes of Ortiz or some of the other top heavyweights, Molina is going to need to start fast, throw lots of bombs, and not think so much like he normally does. Molina says he uses his mind a lot in the earlier rounds to think a lot. That’s not helping him though, because he was blitzed out by Chris Arreola in his 1st round knockout loss to him four years ago in their fight in 2012.
Molina also fell behind against Wilder last year by not doing enough in the early rounds. Molina waited too long to let his hands go in that fight, and he ended up getting stopped in the 9th round. Molina says he would like to fight a rematch with Arreola now because he feels like he would do better at this point in his career. I doubt the outcome would be any different.
You cannot start slow against someone like Arreola because he’ll blast you out in the first couple of rounds if he’s not met with stiff resistance. Molina may be a good puncher when he lets his hands go, but his chin is very average and I don’t think he’ll be able to take more than a round or two of Arreola’s heavy shots without getting knocked out once again.
The winner of the Martin vs. Joshua fight has a lot of options available to them as far as big fights go. Tyson Fury, the IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, wants to fight the winner of that contest. Deontay Wilder wants to fight the winner of the Joshua-Martin fight as well, as does David Haye. Those would be bigger money fights for the winner of that fight than if they were to take on Molina.
With Molina beating Adamek last Saturday, Molina might want to stay in Poland for his next fight by looking to face someone like Artur Szpilka. That would be an interesting fight, and it might even sellout a large arena or stadium. Szpilka would be a tougher fight than Adamek though, because he can not only punch, but he’s also very good at moving around the ring. However, Szpilka is coming off a really bad knockout loss to Deontay Wilder from last January, and he might not want to take on another big puncher so soon.
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