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Terrence Crawford vs. Molina: John Molina badly misses weight for title fight vs. Terence Crawford, WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) had no problem making weight for his HBO Boxing main event.
John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs) needed to make 140 lbs to make his title fight vs. Crawford official, but he wasn’t even close. Molina came in at 144 pounds, but still had two hours to salvage his status as a title challenger, and dropped all the way down to 143.4. Not much closer, and definitely no cigar.
The good news is that the fight will still go on as scheduled, and it will be in front of Crawford’s hometown fans in Omaha, Nebraska. Unfortunately for Molina, he cannot win Crawford’s titles even if he pulls off the shocking upset and beats “Bud.” According to Top Rank VP Carl Moretti, if Crawford loses, then the belts will be vacated, and he’ll get to fight for both of those titles in his next fight. He also told RingTV that “Molina’s side shelled out ‘an amount amenable to both parties,’” although no further details on the financial arrangements were revealed.
As if that wasn’t enough, if you’re in the UK and watching the Sky Box Office pay-per-view broadcast of the Anthony Joshua vs. Eric Molina undercard later today, WBA 115 lbs champion Luis Concepcion (35-4, 24 KOs) was stripped of his belt after weighing in at 117.7 lbs for his title defense against Kal Yafai (20-0, 14 KOs), who will become the new champion if he wins.
Title fight weight cutting failures for everybody!
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