Jason Moloney Hopeful Australia Will Have Four World Champions By The End Of Mega May

Bantamweight world champion Jason Moloney (27-2, 19 KOs) will begin another mammoth month for Australian boxing when he defends his title against Yoshiki Takei on the Naoya Inoue-Luis Nery undercard at the Tokyo Dome on May 6.

Moloney’s trip to Japan is shortly followed by countryman George Kambosos Jr taking on Vasiliy Lomachenko for the vacant IBF lightweight title in Perth on May 12. 

The Western Australian government has stumped up a large part of the money to lure the Ukrainian legend to the country that will see twin brother Andrew Moloney take on Pedro Guevara for an interim super flyweight title, and Melbourne’s Cherneka Johnson will challenge Nina Hughes for a bantamweight belt on the undercard.

“Six days after the show I will be in Australia to support my brother and to support George as well,” Moloney told BoxingScene. “Hopefully they both win. We’ve had a bit of a lull in recent times, but we could end up with four world champions in the next month which is exciting. George against Loma is a tough fight, I rate Lomachenko so highly, but timing is everything in boxing and it could just be the right time for George to get Lomachenko. He was obviously incredible in his last fight with [Devin] Haney, but at some stage Father Time catches up to you, George just might have the timing right here.

“George obviously works extremely hard, I really hope he can pull it off. I’ll always back my fellow countryman. The show is pretty huge for Australian boxing, and also pretty huge for him and his career. It’s great to see another huge show bring another big name to Australia. Looking forward to being there, obviously Andrew has a big fight on the card fighting for the interim world title. I’m looking forward to seeing my brother catapult his career to where he wants it to be, put himself among the big names in the division and get the big fights that he is after.”

Australia’s mega May will end with recently stripped cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia rematching Mairis Briedis for the the same vacant belt in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18. 

“I think Jai is the best in his division,” Moloney added. “You can count him as the champion right now, he’s still the Ring Magazine champion. When he fights Briedis again, I think he wins that one. It’s a tough fight which I’m sure will be exciting and he will become champion again.”