Terence Crawford To Fight John Molina In December
The beef between Al Haymon and Bob Arum seems to be over, evidenced by the announcement of junior welterweight world champion Terence Crawford’s next fight.
The LA Times reported that Crawford will now face John Molina, who fights for Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series, on December 10 on an HBO-televised card.
Haymon and Arum have been in a legal battle ever since Haymon and HBO split in 2013, with only one Haymon boxer fighting on the network since then, with Dominic Wade fighting Gennady Golovkin in April due to Wade being a mandatory challenger to Golovkin’s WBA (Super), IBF, IBO, and WBC interim titles. Earlier this year, Arum settled his lawsuit that accused Haymon of working to monopolize boxing.
Outside of the Haymon-Arum issues that would have prevented a Crawford vs. Molina from happening, there were two obstacles in preparing the fight that got resolved fairly quickly: The date and venue. December 10 was supposed to be reserve for Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs, but both sides have agreed to hold off on a potential bout until early 2017, which freed up December 10 for Crawford. The CenturyLink Center was supposed to host a Creighton University men’s basketball on that day, but Arum told ESPN that the school agreed to move the game to another day.
Molina’s career appeared to be in peril as he lost five of eight fights between September 2012 and March 2015 to various opponents including Lucas Matthysse, Humberto Soto and Adrien Broner. Molina’s fortunes turned around for the better in his last fight when he defeated Ruslan Provodnikov via unanimous decision back in June.
Crawford’s WBO and WBC junior welterweight belts will be on the line against Molina. The broadcast will be from Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Crawford last fought in July, beating Viktor Postol for Postol’s WBC title.
