Andrew Moloney is on the hunt for a new foe.

The Ring has confirmed that Mexico City’s Carlos Cuadras was forced to withdraw from a previously scheduled bout versus Moloney. Cuadras suffered a torn Achilles, for which he already underwent surgery. The recovery process will extend well beyond their planned May 12 interim WBC 115-pound title fight in Perth, Australia.

Moloney will remain on the show, likely still in the ESPN co-feature slot to the Vasiliy Lomachenko-George Kambosos vacant IBF lightweight title fight. The Ring has learned that Pedro Guevara has emerged as the leading candidate to replace his countryman.

Cuadras (42-5-1. 28 knockouts), No. 5 at 115, defeated Guevara (41-4-1, 22 KOs) via decision in their interim WBC title fight last Nov. 17 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The bout was held in honor of the annual WBC convention. Cuadras used the opportunity to resurrect his career after having previously held the full WBC title.

Moloney (26-3, 16 KOs), No. 4 at 115, is the top-rated WBO contender but was willing to challenge for the secondary WBC title.

He still gets to fight in his home country for the second straight time. The 33-year-old from Kingscliff returned down under for a ten-round win over Judy Flores last Dec. 9 in Albert Park. It was Moloney’s first fight after a devastating 12th round knockout to Junto Nakatani (27-0, 20 KOs), No. 1 at 118, last May 20 in Las Vegas.

The fight versus Nakatani was for the vacant WBO 115-pound title. Moloney resurfaced to the top of the queue after Nakatani vacated to campaign at bantamweight.

The rest of the show still remains intact.

WBA bantamweight titlist Nina Hughes (6-0, 2 knockouts), No. 2 at 118, will defend versus Melbourne’s Cherneka Johnson (15-2, 6 KOs) in the ESPN-televised opener. The show will also air live on Main Event Pay-Per-View in Australia.

Ukraine’s Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) and Sydney’s Kambosos (21-2, 10 KOs) meet in a vacant title fight between former RING lightweight champs. Lomachenko is a is ranked No. 1 at 135 by The Ring. Kambosos is the Ring No. 9-rated lightweight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JakeNDaBox

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