Notebook: Franco, Moloney aim for definitive result to rivalry in trilogy fight

Ali's grandson turns pro; WBA under heavy fire; Vergil Ortiz test; Pacquiao-Ugas undercard change; Spence surgery; more

Joshua Franco and former titlist Andrew Moloney are ready to settle the score once and for all.

They will meet for a third consecutive time in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they hope for clarity after two disputed outcomes.

In June 2020, they met in Las Vegas for the first time and Franco dropped Moloney in the 11th round and won a tight unanimous decision — 115-112, 114-113, 114-113 — to claim a secondary junior bantamweight title in an upset.

Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs), 30, of Australia, exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch and they met again in Las Vegas on Nov. 14 and fought to a highly controversial second-round no decision, allowing Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs), 25, of San Antonio, to retain the 115-pound belt. Franco suffered right eye damage and was unable to continue because of what referee Russell Mora ruled an accidental head butt that could not be found on video replays during a nearly 30-minute review. The WBA then ordered the third fight.

“I know 100 percent deep down inside there was no head butt,” Moloney said at Thursday’s final news conference. “The whole world knows there was no head clash, and if you watch the replay, you’ll see at 1:36 left in round one, I land a jab that shuts his eye. I knew that on the night, and I’m even more sure of it now.”

Moloney said he is coming to get the belt he believes rightfully belongs to him.

“I know Franco is going to be more determined this time around after the criticism he’s copped since that last fight and the whole world knowing that I should be the champ right now,” Moloney said. “But I’m coming even more determined with more to prove, and as I said, I’m doing this for my family and this is going to be a great night and I’m going to come out with that belt like I should’ve.

“It’s hard to put into words how much this means to me. I feel like my whole life I’ve dedicated to this sport. The last 18 years I’ve given this sport everything I’ve got and all the hard work and all the sacrifices I’ve made will all be worth it when I become two-time champion on Saturday night.

Franco said winning means just as much to him as Moloney and he brushed off the criticism of the head butt call in the rematch.

“It means everything to me. This fight means a lot and that’s why I prepared myself the very best in the gym,” Franco said. “Winning this fight and making the statement I want to make will open up bigger doors for me. There were no issues at camp. Camp went very well, very good, so I'm ready to go.

“(The second fight) was only two rounds. Two rounds don’t really show much. To me, the fight was going the same way as the first fight, but that’s why we’re making the third fight, to take care of business. I’m ready for that.”

Pro debut for Ali’s grandson

In a four-round middleweight bout that will precede the main event, Nico Ali Walsh, the 21-year-old grandson of Muhammad Ali, will make his professional debut against Jordan Weeks (4-1, 2 KOs), 29, of Lexington, South Carolina, in a four-rounder.

“I feel like everyone puts this pressure on me because of my grandfather being who he was, but to me, it’s just my grandfather,” Ali Walsh said. “To everyone else, it’s the ‘Greatest of All Time.’ I believe that too, but to me, it’s just my grandfather.

“I think he’d be most excited that I’m being promoted by Bob Arum and Top Rank. The tradition of Arum promoting my grandfather to now promoting me is pretty amazing, so he’d have a lot to say about that. It’s been amazing.”

The first fight Arum promoted was Ali’s heavyweight title defense against George Chuvalo in Toronto in 1966. Ali promoted 29 Ali fights in all.

“I’ve been training with SugarHill (Steward) and BB Hudson, and we’re having a great time in the gym,” Ali Walsh said. “I’m learning a lot, and it’s been quite the experience. I’m not surprised with the attention. I know my grandfather is a pretty special person to a lot of people. It’s pretty good hearing all the stories, knowing that my grandfather has so much love and admiration and people are carrying that onto me. That’s great, but it doesn’t affect my preparation. I would be training the same if I was Joe Schmo on the street.”

Also on the card, junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. (25-0, 10 KOs), 29, of South El Monte, California, will take on Antonio Moran (26-4-1, 19 KOs), 28, of Mexico, in a 10-rounder.

Preliminary bouts will stream on ESPN+ beginning at 6 p.m. ET.

WBA strips Maestre, suspends judge

The WBA on Thursday continued to do damage control by stripping Gabriel Maestre of its interim welterweight title in an attempt to clean up the disaster of last Saturday’s massively controversial Maestre unanimous decision win over Mykal Fox to claim the vacant belt in the PBC on Fox main event in Minneapolis.

The WBA also said it “will respectfully request the Minnesota commission to declare the bout a no contest.”

The WBA also indefinitely suspended judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo, whose shocking 117-110 scorecard in favor of Maestre (4-0, 3 KOs), 34, of Venezuela, was by far the most offensive of the three ludicrous scorecards turned in for the bout. The others came from John Mariano (115-112) and David Sing (114-113), who also had it for Fox (22-3, 5 KOs), 25, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Fox scored a clean knockdown in the second round and appeared to dominate virtually every round of the bout. The result caused wide outrage.

Martinez Rizzo was not suspended for her outrageous scorecard but because she was discovered to have posted multiple racist posts toward Blacks, namely Michelle Obama and LeBron James, in 2020 to her now-deleted Twitter account; Fox is Black.

The WBA said in its announcement that it “expresses its rejection of any act of intolerance against others, which includes racism, as stated in Article 9.01 of our Code of Ethics: ‘To oppose and counteract discrimination on the grounds of race, nationality, religion, social status.’ For that reason, the WBA has suspended judge Gloria Martinez indefinitely.’”

Earlier in the week the WBA said it reviewed the video of the fight and ordered an immediate rematch requested by Fox promoter Marshall Kauffman. If the sides cannot make a deal and it goes to a purse bid the split is 50-50 and the WBA said it will not approve any interim bout for either fighter.

In the wake of the bout the WBA has come under intense pressure from fans, media and the Association of Boxing Commissions over how the organization has conducted itself in terms of the massive proliferation of its titles, its involvement in appointing judges in states that do not have strong commissions and multiple appearances of conflicts of interest.

The biggest reason the WBA now suddenly is claiming it will reduce the number of titles it sanctions — something WBA president Gilberto Mendoza Jr. has said for years but has not acted upon — is because it faces a severe impact on in its ability to do business and generate sanctioning fees, typically 3 percent, of each boxer’s purse in a title bout.

ABC president Mike Mazzulli sent Mendoza a letter this week in which he said having at least three titles per division “is misleading to the public and the boxers” and added that if the WBA doesn’t clean up its act the ABC would recommend to its membership that it not recognize WBA-sanctioned bouts in the United States. That would essentially put the WBA out of business because it generates the vast majority of its revenue from fights that take place in the United States.

Mazzulli’s letter also said it could recommend to its members barring the WBA from having any role in recommending officials for its bouts and from allowing its supervisors at ringside.

Test for Vergil Ortiz

Welterweight sensation Vergil Ortiz Jr. has consistently stepped up his opposition over the past several fights and his promoter believes a strong victory over former world title challenger Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas will mean he is ready to fight for a world title.

“He fought (former world title challenger Antonio) Orozco, a very good opponent. He passed the test,” Golden Boy president Eric Gomez told Fight Freaks Unite. “Then he fought Brad Solomon, a mover, a boxer, a guy that knows how to handle himself. He passed that test. Samuel Vargas was a tough guy, a rugged guy that had been in there with some good competition. Then Maurice Hooker was another step up, a former world champion (he knocked out on March 20) and now Kavaliauskas is probably his toughest test. I feel if he passes the test with flying colors he’s ready to challenge anyone for a world title.”

Ortiz is set to meet Kavaliauskas in the 12-round main event of a card Saturday on DAZN (8 p.m. ET) at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, a home region fight for 23-year-old Dallas native Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs). Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs), 33, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian from Lithuania, has won his only fight since a ninth-round knockout loss challenging Terence Crawford for his world title in December 2019. He appeared to drop Crawford but the referee ruled it a slip.

Gomez believes Kavaliauskas is just the kind of legitimate contender for Ortiz to face before they go for a world title fight.

“The matchmaking is very tricky because you need to get him the experience, you need to get him the confidence, but you’re stepping him up each time,” Gomez said. “You’re stepping him up and getting him better opponents and better opponents because we’re marching him toward a world title fight and we want him not only to challenge for a world title, we want him to win. We feel these types of fights he’s been taking, the last three, four fights, are getting him the proper experience he needs and when you have a young prospect there are different roads to a title.

“This road Vergil is taking is probably the toughest road because there have been other prospects that have had easier roads to a title. He is definitely not taking the easy road. He’s fighting tough guys who are giving him experience.”

Pacquiao-Ugas undercard

The Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas Fox Sports pay-per-view card on Aug. 21 has a new opener for the four-fight telecast. It will be a 10-round featherweight fight between Carlos Castro and Oscar Escandon, Premier Boxing Champions announced on Thursday.

Castro-Escandon was originally scheduled as the opening bout of a Showtime tripleheader on Aug. 28 in Castro’s hometown of Phoenix. However, when main event fighter David Benavidez, the two-time super middleweight titleholder and Phoenix native, came down with Covid-19 this week, the card was postponed.

The Pacquiao-Ugas card needed another televised bout when Ugas was shifted from the co-feature to the main event when Errol Spence Jr. was injured. Castro and Escandon were ready to fight, so PBC made the move.

Castro (26-0, 11 KOs), 27, is coming off a 13-month layoff. Escandon (26-5, 18 KOs), 37, of Colombia, has lost three of his last four fights by knockout but against strong opposition, including in a world title fight with Gary Russell Jr. and to Brandon Figueroa and Tugstsogt Nyambayar.

The two other pay-per-view bouts from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas remain intact and just move up one slot on the card.

Following Castro-Escandon will be a 10-round featherweight fight between Mark Magsayo (22-0, 15 KOs) and former junior featherweight titlist Julio Ceja (32-4-1, 28 KOs) followed by the 10-round welterweight bout between former world titleholders Robert Guerrero (36-6-1, 20 KOs) and Victor Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs), who had their fight moved into the co-feature slot.

The original co-feature was Ugas defending his welterweight title against Fabian Maidana, but when Maidana suffered a cut and unified welterweight titlist Spence was diagnosed with a retina tear in his left eye, Pacquiao was matched with Ugas.

Spence has eye surgery

Unified welterweight world titlist Errol Spence Jr. had surgery on Wednesday to repair a tear in the retina in his left eye.

“Emergency surgery went great thanks to everyone for their well wishes & prayers,” Spence posted to his Instagram account. “I’ll be back in no time. I look at it as it could always be worse & being able to see my kids grow is the most important thing to me even tho I was telling the doctor let me fight this fight & I’ll get surgery right after. Doc wasn’t (having) it.”

Spence was forced to withdraw from a title defense against legend Manny Pacquiao scheduled to take place on Aug. 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The tear was discovered during a routine pre-fight medical examination by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in Las Vegas on Monday. Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), a 31-year-old southpaw, who was due to make his sixth title defense, flew back home to Dallas on Tuesday and had surgery the next day.

Retina tears were once usually career-ending injuries for boxers, but with the advancement of technology that is no longer the case and he is expected to make a full recovery and return to the ring.

Quick hits

Top Rank said that the fight between junior lightweight titlist Jamel Herring (23-2, 11 KOs) and interim titleholder Shakur Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs) will headline a Top Rank on ESPN card on Oct. 23. The site is not official but it is likely to be held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Initially, plans were for light heavyweight titlist Joe Smith Jr. (27-3, 21 KOs) to make his first title defense against Russian mandatory challenger Umar Salamov (26-1, 19 KOs) on that date but that fight will instead move later into the fall, possibly to Nov. 6.

---

The fight between WBO strawweight titlist Wilfredo Mendez (16-1, 6 KOs), of Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua’s Carlos Buitrago, scheduled for the Vergil Ortiz-Egidijus Kavaliauskas undercard on DAZN on Saturday in Frisco, Texas, is off. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Buitrago (32-6-1, 18 KOs) was way overweight and on the verge of passing out on Thursday as he was trying to get down to 105 pounds for Friday’s weigh-in. His team informed Golden Boy he would not be able to fight and pulled him out.

---

Showtime is “exploring” moving the card headlined by the Stephen Fulton-Brandon Figueroa junior featherweight title unification fight off of Sept. 11 — which is the date for the higher-profile Oscar De La Hoya-Vitor Belfort pay-per-view — a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Fulton-Figueroa did not have a set venue yet, although it is likely to take place in Las Vegas. BoxingScene reported it could move to Sept. 18, but that would seem logistically challenging because Showtime already had a Bellator MMA event scheduled on that night.

Show and tell

Salvador Sanchez is one of the most revered fighters in boxing history and near the top of any list of the greatest fighters ever from Mexico. He was a superb boxer, a tremendous puncher and very entertaining to watch. He won the WBC featherweight title from fellow Hall of Famer Danny “Little Red” Lopez in 1980 and made nine defenses, including wins over Lopez in a rematch, Juan Laporte and Hall of Famers Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson. Only three weeks after he stopped Nelson in the 15th round of a great fight to retain the title at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sanchez, who speeding on a Mexican highway in his white Porsche, died in a car crash. He was only 23.

Even though he was already 44-1-1 with 32 KOs, he probably still had years ahead as an elite fighter. He died on Aug. 12, 1982 — 39 years ago on Thursday. I have obtained a number of Sanchez items for my collection, but here is one of the coolest. It’s a press pass from his legendary fight against Gomez, which is one of my all-time favorites.

Franco-Moloney and Ali Walsh photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Ortiz-Kavaliauskas photo: Kevin Estrada/Golden Boy; Spence photo: Errol Spence Instagram