John Molina Misses Weight, Fight With Terence Crawford Still On
On a day where several world championships will be on the line, the light welterweight crown is no longer up for grabs after John Molina failed to make weight.
On December 9, Molina initially weighed in at 144 pounds for his match against light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, four pounds over the 140-pound limit. Crawford barely made it, weighing at 139.6 pounds at the final weigh-ins.
Molina was then given two hours to lose the four pounds, and instead, only managed to shed just over half a pound, coming in at 143.4 pounds when he returned to the scales.
The fight, which will main event an HBO-televised card, will still go on as planned, but with a caveat. Crawford cannot lose the belts even if he loses the fight and Molina agreed to give up an undisclosed five-figure payment of his $400,000 purse to Crawford, who will add it to his $1.5 million purse, to go through with the fight.
Top Rank VP Carl Moretti told ESPN while all sides are disappointed of this latest situation, he is still happy that the fight will still happen.
"We are disappointed Molina didn't make weight," Moretti said. "I'm glad for everyone involved that we were able to get (the side deal) done. This was very unexpected. Molina looked and acted fine all week, but even salt looks like sugar."
Fightful will have a live viewing party of the fight, alongside the Anthony Joshua vs. Eric Molina world heavyweight title fight as well as the Jesus Cuellar vs. Abner Mares world featherweight title fight in two separate live viewing parties.
