By Ryan Burton
krikya360.com recently spoke to junior welterweight contender John Molina Jr. about his upcoming fight against former champion Lucas Matthysse at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The fight takes place on April 26th and will be broadcast by Showtime.
Just a few weeks ago it appeared that Molina would be facing former three-division champion Adrien Broner but Broner's team decided to go in another direction and face Carlos Molina instead. Molina said he would have been happy facing either fighter but feels that a fight against Matthysse can't help but produce fireworks.
"I am not worried about (the opponent change). Both are big names and are in the upper echelon of the division. Stylistically it is a bit different given the fact that Lucas Matthysse is more of a come forward kind of guy and I believe that Broner would have tried to box and move especially given the recent outing he had against Marcos Maidana. I don't think he would want to get back in that same situation again," Molina revealed.
I asked Molina if he felt that Broner's team might have thought that he was too much of a risk in his first fight back after his loss to Maidana and that is why they decided to go with Carlos Molina who isn't known as being a heavy hitter.
"I don't want to take anything away from Carlos Molina because he is a good fighter and he earned his position to be there but I do believe there was some strategic reasoning in why he is coming down to 140 and reasoning why they went in a different direction than with me. I can't take anything away from Adrien Broner. He is still a good fighter. The fact that he was able to finish the fight against Marcos Maidana on his feet says something about him. Even though Maidana beat him pretty decisively, you still have to give Adrien Broner credit for finishing the fight and winning some of the middle rounds," Molina told krikya360.com.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com . You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter