Jason ‘Mayhem’ Moloney 26-2 (19) became Australia’s latest world champion with a dominant 12-round unanimous decision win over Filipino Vincent Astrolabio 18-4 (13) to claim the vacant WBO bantamweight championship at Stockton Arena in San Francisco, California on Saturday night.
The 32-year-old Australian realised a 20 year long dream to defeat Astrolabio, 26, on points over 12 rounds.
The fight appeared easy enough to score. Moloney controlled the distance and range in the opening frame, while Astrolabio started to close the distance in the second and continued to get in good work in the third.
After that though, it appeared to be all Moloney. The Australian settled into a rhythm, using his stiff jab and movement to frustrate his power punching opponent. He mixed in power punches with both hands and the occasional body shot, but it was his educated left stick that was the story of the fight.
There were brief moments when Astrolabio connected with hard shots, but they seemed to infrequent to award him any rounds.
Moloney knew he had the fight in the bag by the final round and danced his way to victory.
The only surprise in the end result was how close the three official judges’ scorecard were.
The bout was ruled a majority decision by scores of 114-14, 115-113 and 116-112.
While the right man won, not everyone thought it was close.
“This was beautiful, brilliant work by Moloney,” Hall of Famer and ESPN broadcast commentator Andre Ward said.
“This was a shut-out performance, I believe, for Jason Moloney. There’s no doubt in my mind he won this fight. I don’t see how the judges can take this from him. There was a clear winner here and that was Jason Moloney.”
During the fight, Ward said that the boos from the crowd actually proved that Moloney was doing everything right.
“These boos are actually confirmation Moloney is doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing,” Ward said.
“He’s keeping the puncher, the explosive and exciting guy, out of the fight. He’s building up points. That’s not exciting for the fans but it’s getting Moloney closer to his dream of winning his first world title.”
Fellow Hall of Famer and broadcaster Tim Bradley was blunt in his assessment of the judges’ scorecards.
“They tried to rob him,” Bradley said on the broadcast. “They can boo all they want, but you’re a champion young man. You are a champion.”
Moloney knew what he was coming up against before the fight, saying: “When he knocks opponents down, he likes to get in their face.
“And with fighters like that, most of the time they’re front runners. Which I think is the case with Astrolabio.
“If you allow him to get his confidence up, he will be pulling that type of stuff. But I’m aiming to get in there and break his will quickly.
“If the fight goes how I want, he won’t have the confidence to be doing any of those antics.
“He’ll realise quickly he’s never been in with a fighter like me.
“So I don’t think there will be too much showboating… there will be too much coming back at him for that.”
