Super flyweight Andrew Moloney was due to face Mexican legend Carlos Cuadras on the stacked Vasiliy Lomachenko-George Kambosos Jr. bill next month in Perth, Australia.
However, due to a serious injury, one Mexican former champion replaces another. Former light flyweight world champion Pedro Guevara will now collide with the Australian for the WBC interim title instead.
“As far as I know Carlos has ruptured his achilles,” Tony Tolj, Moloney’s manager, said exclusively to . “We’ve had to get a replacement opponent, but Top Rank have been absolutely amazing to get the job done so quick. I think they’ve got him [Moloney] the next best available replacement in Pedro Guevara. Before I even asked any questions, they said they were onto getting a replacement.
“It’s boxing. You just have to improvise and overcome any situation like that. There are always issues in the lead up to any fight, it is just a matter of how you deal with it. I’m very grateful we could get him in with good notice and he was willing to take the fight.”
Coincidentally Cuadras and Guevara locked horns in Uzbekistan last November. The two Mexicans fought it out over 12 rounds, Cuadras taking the win by split decision.
“I’ve been told Cuadras could be out for close to a year,” Tolj added. “Andrew can only fight the guy in front of him, but Andrew and his brother Jason want to be remembered for fighting great fighters and being in the best fights. Guevara is a former world champion who we have nothing but respect for. You can’t not respect him for what he’s done in his career. We look forward to the challenge.
“Andrew and Jason are all about creating a legacy. As you can see with [Kazuto] Ioka, a legend in Japanese boxing, he vacated his title because he didn’t want to fight Junto Nakatani. Andrew jumped at the fight. He was losing the fight, but in the 12th round he said, ‘I’m going to give everything I can’. He got stopped, but you move on from that and learn from your mistakes. Andrew is always going to want to face the best possible opponent every time, it’s just how he is built. You only become the best if you fight the best, and with this level of opponents it is how you better yourself as a boxer. The old timers in boxing say, ‘If you haven’t lost, you don’t know how to fight.’”
Moloney is currently the No. 1 ranked contender for Kosei Tanaka’s WBO world title, a fight he has long called for. The 32-year-old will jump into the same position for Juan Francisco Estrada’s WBC belt if successful in Perth. Estrada will defend his title against Jesse Rodriguez on June 29.
“We jumped at the chance to have the WBC interim title on the line,” Tolj explained. “We will jump at any chance to get to a world title. Tanaka is still on our hitlist, so is Estrada, so is Rodriguez, so is Ioka and also Fernando Martinez. We want all these fights, this is what it is all about. The best fighting the best.”