World-rated junior bantamweight Andrew Moloney is looking to continue his march toward a world title fight when he faces experienced Alexander Espinoza on the undercard of George Kambosos Jr.-Devin Haney at the Marvel Stadium, Melbourne, Australia on Saturday.

Moloney, who is rated No. 10 by The Ring at 115-pounds, is thrilled to be able to fight in front of what is expected to be as many as 60,000 fans.

“I am extremely excited and grateful to be part of such a huge event here in Australia,” Moloney (23-2, 15 knockouts) told The Ring. “This is a huge event and what is expected to be one of the biggest crowds we have ever had for a boxing event.

“Having not fought in Australia much over the last three, four years I feel some people in Australia have forgotten about myself and my brother, Jason. I feel this is our opportunity to showcase the level of fighters we are. We want to put on great performances and have all of these fans continue to follow our careers.

“There will be a lot of people watching this show around the world so I plan to put on a great performance and showing everyone that I’m ready to become world champion.”

The 31-year-old boxer-puncher knows his naturally bigger opponent from Nicaragua will provide a stern examination.

“Espinoza is a tough fighter who always comes to fight and throws a lot of punches,” he said. “He is also a big bantamweight so I will be going up in weight for this fight and giving away a size advantage. I expect this to be a hard fight but I expect that my consistent hard work in the gym to get me the win.”

Since coming up short in a three-fight series with Joshua Franco, Moloney has reeled off two wins and is keen to push on with his career.

“I’m very grateful that I have been able to be very active over the last six-months, I believe this is when I’m at my best,” he said. “I’m the type of fighter that is in the gym all year-round so being active is very important for me, especially at this stage in my career where I’m determined to fight for a world title as soon as possible.”

Moloney hopes a win over Espinoza will advance his own world title opportunities.

“I want to become world champion as soon as possible,” he said pulling no punches. “Whichever champion I can get the opportunity to fight first is who I want. I’m willing to fight any junior bantamweight in the world, anywhere, anytime.”

His long-time manager, Tony Tolj, believes Espinoza is the perfect opponent before facing one of the elite fighters in the talent laden junior bantamweight division.

“I think it’s a great fight and a good opponent, Nicaraguan’s always come to fight and Espinoza has shown that,” said Tolj. “The plan moving forward is to position Andrew to become a world champion and make some of the mega fights, [WBO titlist Kazuto] Ioka, [IBF titleholder Fernando] Martinez, [Ring and WBA beltholder Juan Francisco] Estrada, [Roman] “Chocolatito” [Gonzalez], [Joshua] Franco, they are all great fights and that’s the beauty of this division, the best do actually fight the best. They are all throwback fighters.”

Espinoza turned professional in 2015. He went unbeaten in his first 17 fights, all in his native Nicaragua. He narrowly lost his unbeaten record against former amateur standout Mikhail Aloyan (SD 10) in Russia. After returning to the winner’s circle, he was surprisingly stopped by compatriot Dixon Flores (TKO 2). “Supernova” gave Ukashir Farooq a tough outing, losing a highly competitive 10-round decision in April 2021. The 29-year-old has a record of (21-3-2, 8 knockouts).

Kambosos Jr.-Haney, plus full supporting undercard, will be broadcast on ESPN, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter@AnsonWainwright