By Scott Gilfoid: Contender Eric Molina 25-3, 19 KOs) says he plans on hitting IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) harder than he’s ever been hit before in his three-year pro career when the heavyweights fight each other next month on December 10 on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
It doesn’t really say much that Molina will be hitting Joshua harder than he’s been hit as a pro, because he’s been matched by his promoter against largely non-punchers since he turned pro. The only guy of the 17 opponents that Joshua has faced with any kind of pop in his punches was Dillian Whyte, who came into the fight with him last December with a bad left shoulder. That was Whyte’s power hand.
Without his left hand working for him, he was a sitting duck. Whyte did muster some power on one of his left hooks he threw in the 2nd round, but he injured his shoulder even worse from that shot. Whyte was a one-armed fighter from the 3rd round until getting stopped in the 7th. The rest of the guys that Joshua has faced had no power to speak of.
Is it an accident that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has matched him against non-punchers or is it on purpose?
“I can definitely say one thing, I will hit AJ harder than he’s ever been hit,” said Molina to skysports.com. “That’s going to happen on December 10. I will hit him harder than he’s ever been hit and if he dances, and I can get him hurt, I will not sit back like I sat back with Wilder. l have to attack, if I have him hurt. I’m going for the kill.”
I hope for Molina’s sake that he goes after Joshua in a very real way on December 10, because he was too passive in his loss to Deontay Wilder, as well in his last fight against Tomasz Adamek last April. Molina, 34, waited until the 10th round to start throwing punches back at Adamek. Luckily for Molina, he was able to KO Adamek. He was definitely well behind at the time of the stoppage. If the fight had gone to the scorecards, Molina would have lost by a lopsided 12 round decision.
Molina did get knocked out by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder last year in June 2015 in Birmingham, Alabama. There’s no denying the fact that the 6’7” Deontay had Molina flying around the ring like a bird in dropping him four times in the fight. What was really impressive about that fight was how seldom Deontay used his right hand. He used it sparingly compared to in his previous fight against former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne in January 2015.
The reason for that is because Wilder suffered a broken right hand in the win over Stiverne. Wilder came back five months later for the Molina fight. Wilder obviously needed more time to get his right hand ready for the fight, because he was no confident in using it in the Molina fight. Wilder was still able to drop Molina over and over again despite not having full power with his right hands.
“This is going to be the toughest fight of his career and only because I’m that fighter that has gone better throughout my career,” said Molina. “I’ve gone better every fight, up until my last fight, up until now.”
It’s going to be tough on Molina to fight in front of such a large crowd like the one that will be turning up to see the Joshua-Molina fight at the Manchester Arena on the night. The boxing fans are going to be overwhelmingly supporting Joshua in this fight. Molina hasn’t seen anything like that since his fight against Deontay Wilder last year. Even in that fight, the fans were pretty quiet. Joshua’s fans are going to be yapping like crazy each time he throws anything at all. Molina will need to be mentally strong not to go to pieces at all that support for Joshua.
If Molina is telling the truth about him being ready to make this the hardest fight of Joshua’s career, then maybe it might not be ta bad fight to watch. However, just going by the basic history of Molina’s past fights, I don’t see this being a tough fight for Joshua at all. Molina is a slow starter for some reason, and you can’t be a slow starter against Joshua. He likes to go after his opponents from the 1st round to try and get them out of there immediately.
Joshua used to fight like that. Joshua changed tactics in his last fight against Dominic Breazeale by boxing him a little in the first couple of rounds. I think Joshua was more cautious against Breazeale after the way he’d been hurt in his fight against Dillian Whyte last December. Joshua came out throwing power shots and ended up getting staggered by Whyte in the 2nd round. I still think Joshua will come out fast against Molina, because he’ll have seen enough of his past fights to realize that Molina start slowly in the early rounds of his fights, and is very vulnerable during that time.
“He’ll fight the toughest Molina that anybody has ever seen, just like Adamek fought the toughest Molina that was seen before him,” said Molina
I’ve heard of fighters getting a boost of confidence after a win before, but this is ridiculous. Molina has become too confident from his win over Tomas Adamek. It’s too bad Molina didn’t fight someone else to test his confidence out before he fought Joshua. I think that would be a better idea.
I rate Molina’s right hand power better than anyone Joshua has faced since he turned pro. Molina has a decent left hook as well when he can land it. I would hope for Molina’s sake that his trainer can get him to start quickly on December 10, because I seriously doubt that he’s going to be around for too long if he fights at a snail’s pace like he normally does. Joshua will take him out quickly if he’s getting no resistance in this fight.
It wouldn’t be good news for Molina’s boxing career for him to lose badly to Joshua, because this might be the last chance he gets at fighting for a world title. You can already stay that Molina doesn’t deserve another world title shot because he’s not beaten anyone good since his last title shot against WBC champion Wilder. Sorry, I don’t consider Rodricka Ray and 40-year-old Tomasz Adamek as relevant heavyweights in this day and age.
Joshua wanted to fight 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko on December 10, but he suffered a calf injury and wasn’t available to fight him. Those two will likely face each other in the first quarter of 2017 unless one of them suffer another injury. It’s going to be especially bad for Wladimir, because he hasn’t fought since November of last year. By the time he does fight, he’ll have been out of the ring for a year and a half. With Wladimir not taking a tune-up before his fight against Joshua, it’s hard not to see it as a cash out fight for Wladimir rather than a serious fight.