Jason Moloney (27-2, 19 KOs) retained his WBO bantamweight title with a majority decision victory over Saul Sanchez(20-3, 12 KOs) in an incredibly memorable fight.
The brutal clash took place on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev’s light heavyweight world title defense against Callum Smith. Moloney-Sanchez closed out the ESPN+ portion (for US viewers) of the event in Quebec City, Canada, at the Vidéotron Centre. It was Moloney’s first world title defense since the loss. Vincent Astrolabio in May of last year..
Jason Moloney fights with Saúl Sánchez
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Jason Maloney defeats Saúl Sánchez in an entertaining fight
In the first round, Moloney moved around the ring on his back foot, allowing Sanchez to pursue him. Sanchez started well, but Moloney had success towards the end of the first round with body shots on him. The American continued to press in the second while the reigning champion continued working the body.
A cut opened on Moloney’s right eye in the third round, caused by a clash of heads due to a close-quarters fight with Sanchez. As the rounds progressed, the fight became more brutal. Sometimes Moloney was the one pushing forward. There was a lot of back and forth action throughout the fight.
By the middle of the rounds, most of the fighting was taking place inside. Blood continued to leak from the WBO champion’s eye, but that did not affect his willingness to show up and exchange with Sanchez. In the tenth round, he was “The Beast” boxing off the back foot along the ropes with Moloney pressing forward.
Until the end, the two continued to fight to the applause of the crowd. The fight itself was very close and the scorecards reflected it. While one of the judges saw the clash as a 114-114 tie, the other two considered it 116-112 for Moloney.
IT WAS 36 MINUTES.
We have an early FOTY contender in 2024 👑 pic.twitter.com/D3HdxXbcuv
– Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) January 14, 2024
Billboard results
Imam Khataev (6-0, 6 KOs) earned a TKO victory over Michal Ludwiczak (17-13-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round light heavyweight bout. Ludwiczak went down midway through the second round. After a barrage of punches from Khataev, referee Alain Villeneuve intervened to stop the clash at 2:17 of the second.
In an eight-round super featherweight rematch, Leila Beaudoin (11-1, 1 KO) avenged the only loss of her career against Elizabeth Espinoza (4-6-3, 1 KO) by unanimous decision. The scores were 78-74 (x2) and 77-75. Previously, Espinoza defeated Beaudoin by unanimous decision in Mexico in May of last year.
Wilkens Mathieu (6-0, 3 KOs) won by unanimous decision over José Álvarez (3-2, 1 KOs) in a four-round super middleweight fight. The scores were 40-35 (x2) and 40-36. Álvarez went down once in the second round.
In an eight-round light heavyweight clash, Mehmet Ünal (8-0, 7 KOs) won by technical knockout in just 57 seconds. Dragan Lepei (22-7-2, 10 KOs, 1 NC) fell with a blow to the temple and got up, but his legs were shaking. This caused referee Martin Forest to wave off the fight.
Christopher Guerrero (10-0, 5 KOs) won by unanimous decision against Sergio Herrera (7-4, 4 KOs) in an eight-round welterweight fight. The scores were 79-73 and 78-74 (x2).
The opening of the event was a four-round middleweight fight between Moreno Fendero (3-0, 2 KOs) and Víctor Flores (7-3, 3 KOs). Fendero won the fight by knockout at 2:16 of the first round after knocking Flores down twice.
Be sure to come back to Big Fight Weekend for the final recap of Artur Beterbiev-Callum Smith.
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