Ricardo Alvarez-Sergio Thompson could replace Carlos Molina-Jermall Charlo
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer will substitute the Ricardo Alvarez-Sergio Thompson fight for Saturday's scheduled bout between Carlos Molina and Jermall Charlo on Showtime Pay Per View if the jailed Molina is not released from the Clark County Detention Center in time for Friday's weigh-in.
Molina was arrested Tuesday in Las Vegas and remained incarcerated as Schaefer addressed media members during Thursday's press conference at the MGM Grand, site of Molina's scheduled IBF junior middleweight defense against Charlo on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez-Alfredo Angulo.
Molina is wanted in Wisconsin for obstruction and failing to register as a sex offender, according to a Clark County Detention Center spokesperson. The Mexican-born fighter was being held in an immigration hold on $10,000 bail.
Leon Margules, Molina’s promoter, told RingTV.com that “[Molina] had a little issue, but we took care of it. He had an old warrant that we had to take care of."
The lightweight bout between Thompson and Ricardo Alvarez, Canelo's older brother, was not initially part of the televised portion of a card that also features WBC 122-pound beltholder Leo Santa Cruz in a defense against Cristian Mijares.
"We see that Carlos Molina is not here. Jermall Charlo is," said Schaefer. "There are some issues which Carlos Molina is facing related to some outstanding warrants. His legal team and his promoter, Leon Margules, from Warriors' Boxing, are currently working on trying to sort these issues out and to have him ready, hopefully, for the weigh-in, and, ultimately, for the fight. I know that Molina wants to fight, and I know that he has a team behind him which is going to try to do whatever they can to get him here in time to be on the card.
"Just in case, this is just for the pay-per-view audience to know, and it's just for the readers to know, as well, I do hope that it's not going to come to that, but if that fight does not happen, then we would, of course, have the luxury of moving up Ricardo Alvarez against [Sergio] Thompson to the pay per view card. That's the beauty when you have these deep cards, as I mentioned in the beginning. I have to tell you that from a pure entertainment point of view, it probably would be an upgrade to the pay-per-view card. I'm not saying that because of Charlo, by the way. So, we're going to leave it at that. Of course, I hope that the fight is going to happen. It's a much anticipated fight."
Molina is wanted by the Sheriff’s department in Outagamie, Wisc., on the sex charges, which have been pending since January 2007, and the Appleton Police Department on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct warrant that had been pending since 2005, according to Yahoo! Sports, which first reported the story.
Thompson was announced on Tuesday as the replacement against Ricardo Alvarez for WBC beltholder Omar Figueroa Jr., who cited a re-injured left hand on Friday as his reason for pulling out of the bout with Alvarez.