The more than peculiar trilogy that played out between Andrew Moloney and Joshua Franco between mid-2020 and 2021 now seems a distant memory for the Australian super flyweight who has since gone four fights undefeated.
“Yeah mate! It was a tough period. I don’t want to bang on about it too much, but my world title got ripped away from me in not the most sporting of circumstances.” Said Andrew Moloney (25-2) in an exclusive interview for ProBox News.
The stakes were high and so was the uproar on social media when Andrew Moloney rematched Joshua Franco in November of 2020. The official reading is that the fight was marked as a no-contest due to an accidental head-butt. The commentary team, Bob Arum and the television replays were all in agreement that the cut caused was due to a legal punch from Moloney. However, I guess that’s boxing!
“Crazy times man. It was an insane period away from boxing too, but we’ve bounced back and I’m itching to get another world title shot. We were away at the WBO convention and I was a little bit disappointed to be honest with you. I was hoping I would be installed as the mandatory for the WBO, but I’m in at number two. So it’s likely I’m at least two fights away from a shot at Kazuto Ioka, who holds the title.”
Despite the disappointment Andrew Moloney is perched quite nicely within the top four governing bodies. Moloney holds second place in the WBC and WBO, with a fifth place ranking within the WBA and IBF.
“My manager has done a good job with all that, I was feeling pretty down on the way back from Puerto Rico for the WBA Convention. But when you look at my position, it’s pretty good, lots of options.
“The WBC have ordered myself to fight Pedro Guevara for a final eliminator to get the right to fight Juan Francisco Estrada, who obviously just beat (Roman) Gonzalez. That would be the best fight for me! The main man in the division is Estrada, even before his third fight with Gonzalez.
“If you want to be great, you have to fight and beat the the best. It’s pretty clear Estrada is the best at the moment. It almost feels like destiny.”
With potential destiny beckoning for Andrew Moloney, his options are looking up. A four fight win streak has followed since defeat to Joshua Franco and has been delighted to be fighting on home turf once again.
“It’s been a a good period for me. It’s been amazing to be fighting on huge shows in Australia once again. Me and my brother (Jason Moloney) have always wanted to fight in Australia, but you do tend to have to go abroad for the really big fights. We’ve been really fortunate to have Top Rank as our promoters through the pandemic and they are open to us doing fights at home too.
“Top Rank promoted the big show here in October, so that worked nicely. Also, I was fighting in the USA just two fights after my defeat to Franco. I’ve got a nice thing going on at the moment, I’m ranked well with everyone, I have a profile in the USA and opportunities are opening up in Australia too. Roll on 2023!”