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John Molina Jr. weighs 144, has two hours to drop four pounds

Photo by: Naoki Fukuda
Fighters Network
09
Dec

A soft-looking John Molina Jr. exceeded the junior welterweight limit by a whopping four pounds on Friday in his weigh-in for his title fight with Terence Crawford, tipping the scales at 144 pounds.

Molina was given two hours to lose the weight; Crawford, for his part, safely weighed in at 139.6 pounds and appeared lean and ripped for the 140-pound bout for his RING/WBC/WBO titles. Molina seemed matter-of-fact about missing the mark so badly. “Yeah, definitely we’re going to get to work and do what we have to do,” Molina said in an on-camera interview with a Top Rank official after the weigh-in. “We’ll just get the four pounds off and go to work tomorrow.”

Crawford also seemed to take the whole thing in stride, knowing he doesn’t have to go through the laborious process of losing more weight. “He’s the one that has to go through with (losing the weight), not me,” he said in response to what it meant for him. “I’m not worried about it. I’m not worried about it whatsoever.” The Top Rank official, Crystina Poncher, ended her interview by telling fans the fight would go on.

It’s rare for a fighter to miss weight by that much, especially for a nationally televised title fight. In this case, the bout is ticketed for the main event on HBO and will take place from Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. It will be difficult for Molina to make the weight in so short a window.



The likeliest scenario is his camp will have to pay Crawford’s side an undisclosed amount of money to let the fight go on and a hydration clause could be added to the contract so that Molina doesn’t blow up too much before the fight. Another likely scenario is the fight would take place without Crawford’s titles on the line. An official for Top Rank, the lead promoter for the event, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Molina was popped for failing a drug test for a banned diuretic after his loss to Adrien Broner on March 7, 2015. He was issued a seven-month suspension and fined $90,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Molina tested positive for Furosemide, a diuretic normally used to aid in weight loss or as a masking agent. Molina denied ever knowingly taking a banned substance to the Nevada Commission and said making weight wasn’t a problem against Broner. Molina won two fights after the loss to Broner, most recently upsetting Ruslan Provodnikov on June 11 in a bout at 140 pounds.

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