Josh Kelly vs. Carlos Molina on March 31

Boxingnews24.com

By Tim Royner

Josh ‘Pretty Boy’ Kelly will be battling former IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina (28-8-2, 8 KOs) for the vacant WBA International welterweight title on March 31 on the undercard of the heavyweight unification fight between IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua and WBO title holder Joseph Parker at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

This is supposed to be a step up for the 2016 Olympian Kelly (5-0, 4 KOs), but it isn’t much of one. Molina is 34-years-old now, and not the fighter he was in his prime seven years ago. During his best years, Molina had a reputation of being a spoiler. He would often get on the inside and turn his fights into grappling contests to prevent his opponents from getting their shots off. The style was effective for Molina against a lot of fighters that didn’t know how to deal with his mauling ability on the inside. But against the more powerful guys like James Kirkland and Cornelius Bundrage, Molina came apart.

Molina is fighting out of his best weight class of 154, which is where he won a world title in beating Ishe Smith by a 12 round split decision in September 2013. Molina lost his IBF junior middleweight title in his first defense against Cornelius Bundrage by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2014. For whatever reason, Molina’s career just stalled out after the loss to Bundrage.

Molina won 6 fights in a row from 2015 to 2016 before losing his last 2 fights against Carlos Adames and Ahmed El Mousaoui. Molina is still technically a contender at 147 with him being ranked #13 by the IBF, but it’s hard to view him as a serious contender given his last 2 defeats and the fact that he’s not beaten a quality fighter since his close 12 round decision win over Ishe Smith in 2013.

The 24-year-old Kelly has recent wins over Jean Michel Hamilcaro, Jose Luis Zuniga and Tom Whitfield. It’s still too early to tell whether Kelly will ever win a world title at 147, as he’s not the biggest puncher and he’s in a division that is well represented at the top by champions Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. Kelly might need to wait for one or both of those fighters to move up to 154 for him to have a chance of capturing a world title. It’s going to be tough for him due to his lack of punching power.

Kelly lost a one-sided decision to Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Yeleussinov would later go on to capture the gold medal in the same Olympics. Yeleussinov breezed through the competition. He recently signed with Matchroom Boxing in the UK. Promoter Eddie Hearn is going to try and turn Yeleussinov into a star. He’s kind of in the same boat as Kelly is as far his lack of punching power. The two of them are going to need to win their fights with finesse rather than punching power.

A lot of boxing fans have forgotten about Carlos Molina, because he’s not been a relevant fighter for so many years. Molina fought to a 10 round draw against Erislandy Lara in March 2011. Molina lost to James Kirkland by a 10th round disqualification in March 2012. That was a fight in which Kirkland hurt Molina in the 10th round with a series of big shots. Molina’s corner made the mistake of entering the ring while he was being given a standing 8 count by referee Jon Schorle. The bell had ended but the referee was still giving Molina a standing 8 count. Rather than giving Molina a break, the referee played it tough and stopped the fight due to his corner coming into the ring to place a stool. As hurt as Molina was, he probably would have been stopped in the 11th by Kirkland.