IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (20-0, 17 KOs) defeated Jason Moloney (21-2, 18 KOs) by a seventh-round knockout in a Top Rank event on ESPN+ on Saturday night in the Bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Moloney was knocked down in the sixth and the seventh rounds by big shots from Inoue. After the knockdown in the seventh, the fight was stopped.
Inoue was pretty much hitting the scared-looking Moloney with everything he threw and showing him zero respect. Moloney looked afraid to throw anything back because of the risk factor involved with him being countered by Inoue.
A lot of boxing fans predicted that Moloney wouldn’t last long against Inoue, as he’d been beaten in the past by Emmanuel Rodriguez. that’s the same fighter that Inoue knocked out in two rounds a year ago. Moloney had a nice record, but he’s never beaten anyone solid.
Mikaela Mayer (14-0, 5 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Ewa Brodnicka (19-1, 2 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night to claim the WBO junior lightweight title in ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brodnicka was doing a lot of holding during the fight, a move that cost her big time with the referee taking a point away from her in round six and seven.
Last Friday, Brodnicka came in heavy and lost her WBO title. Tonight, the belt was only available for Mayer to win, which he did and looked great in doing so.
The scores were 99-89, 100-88, and 100-88.
In other action, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceição (15-0, 7 KOs) had to get up off the deck in the second round to come back and defeated the unheralded Luis Coria (12-4, 7 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision.
Conceição was twice docked points for low blows in the 4th and 6th.
The judges scored it as follows:
- 94-93
- 95-92
- 95-92
Conceição was supposed to blow Coria out, but the fight proved to be a lot harder than originally thought. Of course, it doesn’t help that Conceição lost two points for low blows. If you take those away, Conceição wins easily.
The big punching junior welterweight Julian Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) beat Jose Eduardo Lopez (29-8-2, 15 KOs) by a third-round TKO. Rodriguez knocked Lopez down four times in the contest.
Lopez was down once in the first, another time in the second, and two more times in the third. The match was halted at 2:10 of the third.
It’s time for Rodriguez to step it up against better opposition so he can expand a little. It’s too easy for him right now and he’s not getting anything out of these mismatches.
The huge heavyweight knockout artist Jared ‘The Real Big Baby’ Anderson (7-0, 7 KOs) beat Luis Eduardo Pena (6-2, 6 KOs) by a lightning-quick first-round knockout. The match was stopped at 2:47 of round one.
Light welterweight Andy Hiraoka (16-0, 11 KOs) took care of business in beating Rickey Edwards (12-5, 3 KOs) by a fourth-round knockout. Hiraoka teed off on Edwards in knocking him down three times during the one-sided contest.