Joshua Franco defeats Andrew Moloney – Live Boxing results

By Boxing News - 06/23/2020 - Comments

By Mark Eisner: In a minor upset, #12 WBC Joshua Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs) wore down previously unbeaten WBA ‘regular’ super flyweight champion Andrew Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs) and beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Franco, 24, knocked Moloney down in the 11th round and had him on the verge of being stopped. Somehow, Moloney, 29, survived the round, and came back and fought well in the 12th. However, it was too little too late for the WBA champion Moloney.

The judges scored it 115-112, 114-113, and 114-113, all for Franco. Boxing News 24 had Franco winning 115-112 as well. There were a lot of rounds that were close, and you can argue that the fight could have been wider in Franco’s favor. Moloney didn’t do enough to win. There’s no question about that.

Moloney fell apart in the second half

The way that Moloney faded in the part of the fight was unusual for him, considering that he’s always been the better-conditioned guy in his fights. But tonight, Moloney looked tired down the stretch, and he let Franco outwork him with shots, and take over the fight.

In the first six rounds, Moloney looked like he always does in hammering Franco with beautiful body shots, and landing well to the head. Early on, it looked like Moloney was on his way to a one-sided win, but he lost it in the second half of the fight. You have to wonder if he got his weight wrong during camp. Was Moloney weight drained or was Franco simply too good for him tonight?

With this being a voluntary title defense for Moloney, he likely has a rematch clause in the contract. We could see Moloney and Franco running it back again six months from now.

What’s disappointing is that without the knockdown by Franco in round 11, the fight would have been scored a draw. I didn’t see the fight being that close. Moloney gassed entirely starting in the seventh, and the only round that might have done enough to win in the second half was the 12th. Franco would have still won the fight even without the knockdown on my scorecard

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Franco too busy for Moloney

All in all, it was a good victory for Franco, who took the fight as the underdog and came away with the WBA belt. Franco is still the secondary WBA champion behind Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, the WBA Super World 115-pound champion.

Chocolatito is on another level talent-wise than Franco and Moloney It would be better for Franco to defend his secondary WBA title and stay away from Chocolatito because that’s a bad match-up for him.

Tonight WBA secondary super flyweight champion Andrew Moloney will be battling the always though Joshua Franco in the headline attraction at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight is televised on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Moloney (21-0, 14 KOs) puts his unbeaten record and WBA ‘regular’ 115-pound title on the line.

The 29-year-old Moloney was recently moved up to WBC regular champion after previously holding the interim 115-lb belt. It was a double move the WBA made in which they elevated their main WBA champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez to WBA Super World champ.

Miguel Contreras edges Rolando Vargas

Light welterweight prospect Miguel Contreras (11-0, 6 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a close six-round unanimous over Rolando Vargas (5-1, 5 KOs). The judges scored it 58-56, 58-56 and 58-56. Boxing News 24 agreed with those scores in giving Contreras a close win.

Contreras used his old school fighting style to batter the hard-punching Vargas with head and body shots. This was a fierce effort from Contreras, who took the fight to Vargas and wasn’t playing around with him. Vargas ended up suffering a cut in the third round, but he fought on without letting it bother him.

The hopelessly lost Vargas failed to keep the action at range the way he needed, and that ultimately was undoing, The shorter Contreras took the fight to him and landing well to the body.  Vargas wasn’t comfortable at all with the pressure that Contreras was putting on him. Additionally, he wasn’t able to make the right adjustments to deal with it, and he let the fight get away from him. Using some movements would have been excellent for Vargas, but that wasn’t part of his game.

Contrera landed 111 of 328 shots for a connect percentage of 234. For his part, Vargas connected on 102 of 318 for a 32% connect rate. As you can see, the fight was close. Vargas failed to utilize hiss size t keep the shorter Contreras on the outside the way he needed to.

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Helaman Olguin decisions Adam Stewart

In a battle of big heavyweights, Helaman Olguin (8-3, 2 KOs) outworked the previously unbeaten Adam Stewart (8-1-1, 5 KOs) in defeating him by a six-round majority decision in a competitive match.  The judges scored it 58-56, 58-56 for the 36-year-old southpaw Olguin, and 58-58.

The 6’6″ Adam Stewart, who is heavily muscled and does by the alias, ‘The All American,’ couldn’t put punches together to get the better of Olguin. Most of the fight involved a lot of ugly mauling from the tired heavyweights, who weren’t able to sustain any kind of activity without grappling.

After round one, Stewart was bleeding from a head-butt caused by him and Olguin crashing into each other like a couple of large rams. Stewart allowed the southpaw Olguin to smother his work by fighting on the inside instead of fighting at a distance the way he needed to for him to get maximum power on his shots.

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Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz defeats Jason Sanchez

Super featherweight contender Christopher Diaz (26-2, 16 KOs) dominated an over-matched Jason Sanchez (15-2, 8 KOs) in beating him by a 10 round unanimous decision in the co-feature bout on the card. The judges scored it 98-92, 07-93, and 98-92 for Diaz. Boxing News 24 scored it 98-92 for Diaz.

It wasn’t an impressive performance by the 25-year-old Diaz, who picked up his second consecutive win since losing to Shakur Stevenson in 2019. Diaz doesn’t look like the same fighter he was before his loss to Stevenson. That defeat took something out of Diaz, and he now looks timid compared to how to used to fight.

Diaz didn’t put a lot of effort into going after Sanchez the way he needed to get him out of there. Had Diaz showed more aggression, he could have scored a stoppage.

For Sanchez, he’s now lost two out of his last three fights. He was beaten in the previous year by Oscar Valdez by a one-sided 12 round decision. Diaz didn’t look nearly as good as Valdez did in beating Sanchez.