Twitter: Eric Molina heading to Manchester, fight with Anthony Joshua imminent!

Molina is a guy world champs use to stay busy, price doesn't deserve a shot, whyte is off in another lane taking his boxing seriously and knows himself hes not at that level yet but has plans to get there, the rematch now would be too soon for him. wlad ducked.wilders out. parkers got a fight, pulev ducked, There isn't anybody else that would have been much more credible either way, big deal, the big fights naturally will happen soon.

 

This was not a last minute replacement. Joshua and Hearn never intended to fight Klitschko, they used Klitschko's name to make Joshua look good.

 

They've been talking about Eric Molina as an opponent since AJ won the title, so can't really call this a replacement or a late idea.
Molina's always been one of Hearn's prefered opponents.

 

What I don't understand is. Why does Molina get a shot and Price doesn't. Who's more dangerous? Yes Price has a glass chin, but IMO he's quite a bit more dangerous. Molina does have an OK beard but what danger does he pose?

 

Molina is a disappointment but Price would be a travesty.

Molina is probably a top 15 HW, I'd prefer Wlad, Ortiz, Pulev, Haye, Takam or Duahapas.

All of those are top ten opponents who would easily be the best HW he's ever fought.

I can't believe people would prefer Price though. If Price and Molina had an eliminator Molina would spark him.

This is a **** fight but it would be a whole lot worse if it was Price.

Let Price fight Christian Hamer, or the winner of Whyte and Chisora or Helenius.

Let Price prove he's at least world class.

As bad as beating shot Adamek is, it's easily better than any victory Price has.

 

No way is Molina a top 15 HW. Top 25-30 on a good day MAYBE. I agree with Price though, he hasn't done a thing to earn this fight. His selling point here is that he supposedly knocked AJ out in sparring years back when he was coming up in the pro ranks and AJ was still an amateur. Sorry but gym triumphs don't earn you world title fights Pricey, performing in the ring does - which you haven't done very well! I suspect though, Hearn has had helped those rumors make the round to make a fight with Joshua a little more marketable down the line. But Price hasn't been able to get a decent string of wins together and unfortunately for him... The guys you mentioned all probably have too much for him.

 

Molina's chin is as terrible as Prices.. KO'd twice by Arreola and Ashanti Jordan in the first round. Wilders power is just overrated, that's why he lasted a little longer. Joshua KO1 Molina in a terrible mismatch. Hopefully Molina travels to the UK to fight on the undercard (vs Price perhaps)..

 

The win over Adamek must put him at a reasonable level.

Which 25 would you rank above him?

 

Adamek is shot to bits. It's a stretch to rate him in the top 5 at domestic at the moment. I rate someone like Ustinov well above Molina, and I think he'd do a number on him. If that's an indication of where Molina stands.

 

I'd also rate Ustinov above him.

But you said 20-30 so which 20-30 men would you rank above him.

 

I'm not going to go out of my way to list all of those guys man. I'll say this.

He's well below the likes of - Wlad, Povetkin, Fury, Wilder, Ortiz, Pulev, Joshua, Parker, Takam, Jennings, Haye and I see nothing to suggest he's better than the 18 or so guys between them and the top 30. It's a bit of a wild west scenario outside of the names I mentioned, and Molina does little to make himself stand out. On a good day top 25-30 HW. MAYBE top 20, but that's stretching it quite a bit. Other than hurting Wilder and stopping the corpse of Adamek(it was still a fairly competitive fight) he's done nothing to prove he's even a top 40 HW. Arreola dusted him off in 1 a couple years back, and he struggled with ****ing Grano. Calling him top 15 is a major leap.

 

You say it's a major leap, but between us we can't name 15 HW fighters to rank above him.

 

Fine. Have it your way LOL. Apart from the 12 I mentioned which are all LEVELS above him. Szpilka, Duhaupas, Stiverne, Ustinov all have the beating of him.

Outside of those... I'd make following strong favorites over him

Washington, Martin, Scott, Whyte, Chisora, Mansour, H. Fury

Favorites but not strong ones

Browne, Hammer, Teper, Miller, Fedosov, Breazeale(could swap a couple with the with Pick em' but whatever)

About even. Pick em' fights.

Glazkov, Helenius, Charr, Ruiz. Jr, Rudenko, Wach

He could very well win several of these fights, but he does absolutely nothing to distinguish himself from these guys. Certainly not enough to be considered a clear top 15 or top 20 fighter.

 

I disagree Luf. Adamek was shot to chit by the time he fought Molina and even then he was out boxing him easily before being stopped. While Molina was always dangerous in that fight, he had a shadow of Adamek in the ring with him and the only reason he did win was because, one Adamek was shot and two Adamek doesn't have power at heavyweight. Had Adamek a decent punch even a shot Adamek would of KO'ed Molina.

Adamek was so shot he lost to a guy who was KO'ed in a round by a guy he has already beaten.

Price is china chinned but so is Molina, who ever lands first wins.

As for where Molina ranks, I'd have Joshua, Wlad, Povetkin, Wilder, Pulev, Ortiz, Scott, Parker, Browne, Chisora, Duhaupas, Stiverne, Haye, Szpilka, Fury, Ruiz Jr, Whyte, H.Fury, Martin above him, so I'd say he's in that top 20-25 area at the best. I could never have him as high as 15.

 

Well the following are the top 10

Wlad
Povetkin
Ortiz
Wilder
Joshua
Parker
Pulev
Stiverne
Takam
Duhaupas

After that how many are definitely above Molina? Ustinov, Szpilka, Browne, Hammer, Helenius, Scott, Haye. That's the area I put Molina in.

He doesn't distinguish himself but neither do a lot of them. Plus the win over Adamek is better than a lot of HW victories from those you've listed. That's how poor the division is.

I'd say top 15 is more accurate than top 30 but what does it really matter.

It's still a **** fight.