You couldn’t make it up!
Andrew Moloney finally appears to be on the cusp of challenging Willibaldo Garcia Perez for the IBF super flyweight world championship, with purse bids called four days ago.
The 35-year-old Australian has experienced a string of extraordinary events over the last few months, involving ever-changing dates and venues in Mexico, along with some of boxing’s most influential figures trying to get him to step aside at the expense of Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez securing a shot at the undisputed title at 115 pounds.
“A month ago they gave us 30 days to negotiate the fight,” Moloney said in an exclusive interview with Boxing Social. “We didn’t get anywhere in that 30 days. So now they’ve called purse bids for March 5. So, next week we go to purse bid.”
He continued: “I’m excited to finally have a date locked in and know where and when this fight is going to happen because it’s been on the cards for a long time now. But it’s been frustrating. I’ve been working hard in the gym for a few months now knowing this fight was going to happen, but I just want to … get the show on the road.
“Over the last 30 days, all I’ve really had is Eddie Hearn and Sean Gibbons [Garcia’s advisor] basically trying to get me to step aside to allow him to fight Bam. I told them that I’m not interested, but they just kept going and kept going and kept going.”
“And, you know, in the end, I just had to say, ‘Look, my dream is not for sale!’ I don’t care about the money.”
Moloney, 35, won the Commonwealth super flyweight title in 2017 and held the WBA championship in the same division three years later. He has 27 wins from 32 fights (17 KOs) against four losses and one no contest.
“I want to fight for the world title and become IBF champion,” he said. “Bam can wait a couple of months and then we can fight for undisputed after I get my hands on that belt. I probably would have gotten more money stepping aside than what I will for fighting for the world title. But winning that world title means more to me.
“I just want to become world champion again. It’s been six years since I lost my world title, and it’s been a long, bloody hard journey back.”
After being elevated to WBA title holder following his stoppage of Elton Dharry in 2019, he entered a frustrating trilogy with Joshua Franco, losing his maiden championship on the scorecards before a rematch was stopped in the third round due to an accidental head clash — despite video replays clearly showing the cut came from a punch — ultimately resulting in a no contest. Moloney lost the third fight by unanimous decision.
The Aussie road warrior had a second crack at world honors after rebuilding with four straight victories but fell short against Junto Nakatani, suffering a devastating 12th-round stoppage in a bid for the WBO title nearly three years ago.
Moloney and his team have endured a tough road trying to land another world title shot. Last year, the IBF ordered a final eliminator between Moloney and Mexico’s Argi Cortes. The original date for the pair to collide was set for July 19 in Durango, Mexico.
“And then they changed the date,” Moloney explained. “I think it was six times in the end, and they changed the city three times. When we got over to Mexico, they still hadn’t announced the fight. They didn’t have a venue locked in, and there was no promotion of the event. Alarm bells were going off. We realized something dodgy was happening. But we obviously wanted to get over there early so we could acclimatize.
“Five days before the last date they gave us, they said, ‘Oh, the venue is not available. We’re going to have to move the fight to Mexico City,’ which is at 2,200 meters altitude.
“They were obviously just trying to get an advantage because that’s where Cortes lives. So they wanted him to have the advantage and not give us time to acclimatize. We’d already been in Mexico for a month at that point. By the way, I spent $20,000 on the training camp and then didn’t get to fight. We would have fought them anywhere in Mexico that’s not at 2,200 meters altitude. We were even happy to give him another week and stay another week longer to have the fight where it was supposed to be. And they said, ‘No, jump on the fight or jump on the plane. You guys go home and you guys can fight for the world title next.’ The promoter ended up putting on a show the week after at the exact location where we were meant to fight. If they wanted to have the fight, we could have easily had the fight.”
Sadly for Moloney, more frustration followed. Garcia was allowed to swerve his mandatory to face Kenshiro Teraji at The Ring V: Night of the Samurai in Riyadh last December. The fight fell through at the last minute after Garcia fell ill following the official weigh-in.
“I was ready then to go straight into camp to fight for the world title, and that was when we found out that the IBF were going to give Garcia an exemption to fight Kenshiro Teraji and not us,” Moloney added. “I was pretty disappointed at that point. We were supposed to move to the mandatory position, and they were going to order me to fight Willibaldo for the world title. After what we’d just been through in Mexico, I was pretty devastated. I was actually looking forward to watching that fight. I was pretty confident that Kenshiro was going to win that, and my focus shifted to him. The IBF ruled for that fight to go ahead, but it had to happen on that date and couldn’t be rescheduled for a later date. That opened the door to me and Willibaldo for the world title again.
“I think Australia will be an option. I really don’t know where it’s going to land, to be honest. There are a few different scenarios being thrown around. I guess we don’t really know until the date of the bids. We’ll see who comes to the table and who puts out the biggest offer.”