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By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) made easy work of #8 IBF challenger Eric Molina (25-4, 19 KOs) in stopping the reluctant fighter in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.Molina, 34, was absolutely not interested in fighting tonight, as he did zero in terms of throwing punches until being stopped in the 3rd round. Joshua dropped the 6’4″ Molina with a right hand to the head in his corner. Molina made it back up at the count of 8. Joshua then finished Molina off with a three-punch combination that resulted in the referee Steve Gray halting the fight at 2:02 of the 3rd round.
The way that Molina went down from the knockdown in the 3rd, he looked like he had no interest in getting up at all. He just saw there on his backside in the corner after getting dropped. Frankly, I was surprised that Molina even bothered to get back up, because he looked totally disengaged mentally, as if he didn’t want to be there tonight. Heck, Molina had the same look on his face when he entered the ring at the start of the fight. I saw no fire in Molina’s eyes tonight. He just looked totally scared.
“Disaster avoided tonight,” Joshua said. “He started off teeing off with some haymakers early on. There are not too many tactics he can do. It’s hard for him to come in and fight when you aren’t giving him any options. Someone who is boxing with you can give you options, but someone who is boxing on his back feet cannot.”
Molina did little more then cover up and hold the entire brief three rounds of the fight. It was pretty sad to watch. It’s surprising that boxing fans didn’t boo Molina out of the ring by round three, because he was putting in no effort at all. Referee Steve Gray warned Molina in the third that he needed to stop holding, but he should have warned him to stop being a punching bag and throw some punches because he was doing nothing in there.
The fight was won the moment that Joshua signed the contract for the mismatch, as Molina never stood a chance coming in the door. I still don’t know why Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn selected Molina as Joshua’s opponent, because the guy had been knocked out just last year by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Molina had done nothing to earn a second shot at a title unless you count beating Rodricka Ray and 40-year-old Tomaasz Adamek as earning a title.
Molina fought the same way against Adamek as he did against Joshua. Molina looked like a timid rabbit against Adamek until the 10th round, which is when he finally started throwing punches. I knew that if Molina did the same thing against Joshua, he would be knocked out early. I was hoping that Molina would let his hands go early in this fight, because I would be an insane move to just cover up. Unfortunately, Molina played it the same way as he did against Adamek, and it cost him the fight. Oh well, you give credit to Eddie Hearn for picking out a soft job for Joshua to pad his record with. This is yet another soft job for Joshua.
Anthony Joshua: 27 years old | 6’6″ | 82″ reach | orthodox stance.
Eric Molina: 34 years old | 6’4″| 79″ reach | orthodox stance.
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RESULTS
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ROUND BY ROUND
ANTHONY JOSHUA vs ERIC MOLINA
Round 1: Not much by way of fireworks, Molina doing nothing in the round other than trying his best to not get hit clean. Threw one punch of substance. Joshua with an easy round. Joshua 10-9Round 2: this is like if Dredrick Tatum didn’t just punch the crap out of Homer Simpson. Easy round again for Joshua, though Molina did slightly more than in the first. Not a high bar to clear. Joshua 10-9, 20-18
Round 3: Massive right hand lands halfway into the round and Molina is down. He's up at eight. That was a freight train shot. And he's stopped moments later. Joshua TKO-3
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