John John Molina appreciation

worth a read

https://www.ringtv.com/552098-best-i-faced-john-john-molina/

 

If you don’t know anything about Molina why did you start an appreciation thread?

Very skilled boxer mover...I am on the road but will chime in later.

His 3 fights with Lopez are well worth checking out as is his fight with Laporte

 

Very good movement, good combinations, decent if not terrific power. Not among the top-tier Puerto Rican fighters, but a handful for anyone if he was on his game. His fight with DLH is worth seeing as it was Oscar's first real test. John John showed him some things in there and turned it ugly, which was actually great thinking.

He also started balding terribly and got a weave or some kind of implant thing going.

Anything else?

 

You said you didn’t know anything about him? Sounds like you know a little?

Either way John John is overdue for a thread.

Spent this past week scoring some Lopez fights and the 3 Molina fights were among them.

He is a clever boxer and very skilled, not sure who he regularly trained and sparred with but they mentioned sharing a camp w/Meldrick Taylor and Whitaker ( I think in the 2nd Molina Lopez fight but I could be wrong?). That certainly didn’t hurt because he was very sharp.

Lopez vs Molina I
Some say robbery, not I!
He did a masterful job early on in this fight. Both guys start the fight fast and I scored the first round even. Molina continues working a strong jab and his movement keeps Tony from setting or cutting the ring off. He scores a nice flash/balance KD but enough to make Tony respectful and wary of carelessness.
In the 4th and 5th Tony backs to the ropes to tempt Molina inside, but he does not bite. He continues to poke and probe Tony’s defense without getting careless and getting into the fire fight Tony wants. He keeps the distance and never really lets Tony set at all. This is where Pacheco will start a narrative that Molina should have won this fight, because he won the first 6 rds? I beg to differ I had him up 3-1-1 and 4 pts based on another 10-8 round (5) where Molina just wails away on a defenseless Lopez all round. But he stopped fighting? Not sure if this was his doing or his corners strategy. I don’t think he won a round after 5 and had him losing 115-111. But not because he lost, as much as he gave it away. Very reminiscent of DLH vs Tito where you build a lead and then forget that half a fight still has to be won.

II the second fight was a one sided masterpiece, and there are very few fights where a Lopez caliber fighter gets overwhelmed and shutout. For the first 3 rounds Molina is landing at will and Lopez seemed lost. By the end of the 3rd lopez’s right eye was swollen shut. 4-6 continues a onesided display where Lopez seems to slow, and now the eyesight leaves him open to an endless parade of lefts and a cut is on Lopez’s right eye now as well. To me Lopez’s corner should have stopped this before the ref had to in the 10th. Brilliant performance against a quality opponent

III another fight some say Molina was robbed in or that Tony got a hometown decision? Again not I

Molina sets a torrid pace and seeeps the first 3 rounds. But IMO he threw so much and worked so hard that I feel he was punching himself out. The next 5 rounds were all Lopez working the body, and you could argue round 8 as a 10-8 Lopez round (not quite as wide as Molina won round 5 in the first fight, but brutally one sided). Molina digs deep and takes 9-10 to even the fight up, but his legs and arms are noticeably tired and the KD in 11 seals his fate.

Been a while since I have watched his other fights. But I think of him as a skilled boxer, with minimal power but enough to keep guys like Lopez honest and not overly aggressive. Pretty solid chin and the only time Lopez dropped him was more of a fatigue based one. Quality guy who gets overlooked and maybe even underrated in comparison to other PR fighters.

Good thread and I hope a few more appreciate him on here

 

He had an excellent chin, especially in his prime. When he fought Laporte, it was sort of a 130 lbs. equivalent of Ray Mercer fighting Oliver McCall.

He's famous for giving Oscar a really ugly bout, but he also gave prime Robert Garcia a very tough, foul tussle, and one that arguably belong to Molina.

 

I love the Lopez rematch. Molina beat the ever living **** outta Tony in front of a packed arena of obnoxious Lopez fans who started a riot when the ref stopped it.

Molina was a quality fighter. He just gets overshadowed by the PR greats, which might be why he's rarely mentioned.