Martin Honorio was too good and too busy for John Molina on Saturday in Temecula, Calif. Photo / Renay Johnson-FightWireImages.com

It was supposed to be a coming out for hard-punching and undefeated John Molina, the promising lightweight from Covina, Calif. Instead, it was Martin Honorio who made a big statement Saturday in Temecula, Calif.

Honorio, the scrapper from Mexico City, outboxed and outworked his relatively inexperienced opponent to win a surprisingly one-sided decision – 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92.

Molina (18-1, 14 knockouts) landed some of his big shots – which Honorio (27-4-1, 14 KOs) was able to absorb – but they were sporadic. Meanwhile, Honorio seemed to expose Molina’s limited boxing ability. He was both the better and busier fighter.

Honorio has now won three straight fights since his first-round knockout loss to Robert Guerrero at featherweight in November of 2007. He probably will go back down to 130 pounds, at which he could contend for a title.

Molina had been plowing through his opponents, stopping five in a row going into Saturday, but was facing his first significant test against a fighter who has beaten the likes of Steven Luevano and Rogers Mtagwa.

He failed the test and must now rebuild. Molina had only 22 amateur fights, meaning he has fought competitively only 41 times. Undoubtedly, he’ll look at this as a learning experience and be back in the ring soon.