Jason Moloney clinched a world title at the third time of asking, defeating Vincent Astrolabio this past weekend in Stockton, California. The Australian won the vacant WBO world bantamweight title with a majority decision win.
Moloney (26-2, 19 KOs) spoke exclusively to ProBox TV News to discuss his recent success.
“It has been my lifelong dream to be one world champion.” Moloney said. “It is what I have been working for my whole life. I’ve been boxing nearly 20 years, professional for 9 years. To finally have achieved the one big goal I set myself feels amazing. I couldn’t be happier mate, it’s a dream come true. It was a tough fight with Astrolabio, world titles don’t come easy. I knew he was going to be very hungry to win the belt as well. In the 3rd or 4th round I hit him on the top of the head with my right hand and started getting excruciating pain there for the rest of the fight. I had to adapt and change up the game plan slightly and get behind my jab and keep the distance a bit more.
“I used my jab much more than initially had planned. I think it worked well, maybe hurting my right hand might have been a bit of a blessing. Getting behind the jab, boxing and moving seemed to cause him a lot of trouble. It did prevent me from going through the gears a bit more and trying to really break him down. I think if I could have used the right hand I probably would have broken him down. Maybe a later round stoppage. But credit to him, he was a very tough fighter. I had to be a bit smarter, I did keep throwing the right but every time I landed it the pain was excruciating.
“I had to really pick my moments when to let it go.” Moloney continued. “We felt in control, I went back to my corner and constantly kept checking in, asking how we are going. My team in the corner were very confident, they said I was winning every round. They certainly would never sugar coat it for me. We thought it was maybe 10 rounds to 2 or 9 rounds to 3. Then when I heard 114-114, I just couldn’t believe it. My heart dropped and it took me back to the Emmanuel Rodriguez defeat where I lost a split-decision. Thankfully the other two judges got it much more correct and now we are champion of the world and I couldn’t be happier.”
Talk sharply turns towards what and who is next for Moloney now that he is world champion.
"The first goal was to become world champion, but the job is not complete.” Moloney explained. “Now we look to become undisputed. Obviously we need to see who picks up the belts. There are some really exciting fights in the bantamweight division.
“Nonito Donaire is still a fight that I am very interested in. He is a future hall-of-famer and a legend of the lighter weights, to get a victory over him would be amazing for my resume. I could get revenge over Emmanuel Rodriguez, that is something that really excites me, to get revenge from that fight in 2018. Then I guess there is revenge involved with Takuma Inoue, given that his brother beat me. There are some great fights at bantamweight, we will have to wait and see what happens to the rest of these belts. The ultimate goal now is to line them up and beat them all.”
The Moloney family are on a world title tour this week, twin brother Andrew goes in search of world glory this Saturday when he faces Junto Nakatani for the vacant WBO super flyweight world title on the Devin Haney Vs Vasyl Lomachenko undercard in Las Vegas.
“It is great for Andrew.” Moloney added. “It has lifted the spirits of the whole team while we are out here. It has given him even more motivation to go out there this weekend and win the same belt himself. He is in good spirits, excited, focused and ready to go. We came straight to Vegas, the rest of the team went straight after my fight yesterday morning, I got here late last night. Now it is all just about Andrew, we are just doing all we can to make sure he brings home a world title. I guess the first half of the fairytale is complete, now we all get behind Andrew and make sure he finishes the job.”