Fighter who KO'ed Starling a second after the round ended? Fought twice more after that, was KO'ed twice in a row... And then retired. He barely boxed for five years. Anyone?
Fom what I read many, many years ago........he retired after disclosing that he had been battling severe depression, and he just couldn't focus on boxing. This was soon after either beating Starling or a bit after, I forget now. .........As an aside, he had a part in what I consider to be the single greatest moment ever on HBO boxing telecasts....... He'd just KO'd Starling with that shot after the bell, and Larry Merchant was interviewing Starling afterwards. Merchant asked him about the knockdown punch and Starling looked at him like he had three heads........."He didn't knock me down! Do I look like I've been knocked down???" The look on Merchant's face was priceless. He just kinda stared aimlessly for a second as if saying to himself, "I have absolutely no idea where to go with this." :rofl
Bloody hell, i remember watching that like it was yesterday, Thomas landed that punch wayyyyy after the bell and i was so shocked when the KO was legitamised.. i would pay to see that replayed.. Molinares was a no body and Moochi was a reletive boxing god.. Man i gotta get a copy of that again.. I met Starling many times and he was such a nice guy, i remember feeling angry as to why this obvious wrong doing was being allowed to happen.. I was staggered.........
I just rewatched the knockout and was about to ask the very same question on here. I was wondering what happened to Molinares as it just seemed off having those two back to back knockout defeats after such a long winning run and after that controversial fight with Starling. I remember being shocked when I saw this the first time. You have to give Moochie all the respect in the world for coming back from this and beating Honeyghan up in his very next fight. Great technical fighter Starling. :bbb
The punch really wasnt that late. it was a very split second thing but it was late and in that split second starling stopped fighting. But you have to hand it to both molinares and starling Molinares for landing a perfect single knockout punch that sent a defensive (never otherwise been stopped,knocked down) master like starling out like a light. And you have to laud and venerate Starling for brushing it off like it never happened literally afterwards in the ring and also for the rest of his career. he was a class class boxer and if he were fighting today he would give mayweather a hard hard fight and perhaps even beat him he was that good on his best day. But ultimately in the 80s he wasnt as good as don curry.
Kelson Pinto also springs to mind, with a similar story, and similar record, after the defeat to Cotto he wins three out four...then disappears... I am sure that there are other surprise fade-aways..
He would've beaten him in the first fight had he not ****ed around. But yes, Curry showed he was the superior force at the time in their 2nd fight, a great technical battle. Starling was an immeasurably strong all-round fighter, he had enough clout to earn his man's respect, had a quality jab and could box as well as he could fight on the inside (which was very, very well). One of the most defensively skilled fighters we have on film IMO. Great post by the way. Indeed, Starling didn't remember being hit to the extent that to him, it musta' never happened. He won the lineal title in his next f'n fight, that's how good he was.
The reason why the knockout went justified like it did, even after it was clear by all of the television outlets from HBO(who aired the fight live)and the major news outlets from CBS, NBC, and ABC during replays that the punch the Molinares hit Starling with came inadvertently after the bell to close out the 6th round sounded, was because the vice president of the WBA (the organization that sanctioned the Starling-Molinares fight)James J. Binns allowed the knockout to be upheld due to his own personal dislike for Starling both as a fighter and as a person. The only justification that came out of this mess was that the Atlantic City Boxing Commisioner at the time Larry Hazzard after further reviewing of his own from replays actually overturned the knockout to a No-Contest. The same personal bias that James Binns had for Starling he also shared against former WBA lightweight Champion Livingstone Bramble after Bramble's back to back victories over Ray"Boom Boom" Mancini and his masterfully displayed 13th round technical knockout win over mandatory challenger and slight favorite Tyrone "The Butterfly" Crawley who Binns actually lost money on when Bramble beat him just as he probably did when Starling took the WBA Welterweight belt from my man Mark Breland in the summer of 87'. Binns bias towards Starling in the matter of the controversial knockout against Molinares kinda reminds me of Nat Fleisher's personal dislike toward Sonny Liston.
Starling certainly upset a lot of people when he beat ready made star Breland. Robbed in the rematch too. I love Moochie when he battered touted puncher Jose Baret. Just stepped to him and battered him in a few rounds.
I distinctly remember Hazzard at ringside watching the replays and supporting the original decision, claiming that the punch was already in motion when the bell rang and could not be stopped. IIRC, the fight was changed to a no-contest after Molinares tested positive for a banned substance.
Just watched this fight again on YouTube. Word at the time was that Molinares being "hospitalized for depression" was actually a euphemism for "addicted to cocaine" and that he fell apart physically partying 24/7 after his title win. I believe this was detailed in KO Magazine in the day. Molinares fought a 7-7-2 fighter in a small dinner club in his hometown after "cleaning up" and was knocked out. His last fight was against another nobody and he suffered a similar fate and then he completely disappeared.
A very funny and profoundly scary post-fight exchange. Starling was truly unaware that he'd been KTFO, which kind of proved how much he had been.
