‘Eats away at me’: Aussie champ sends massive title demand to US legend

Jason Moloney will urge legendary US promoter Bob Arum to sort an Australian world title showdown against Emmanuel Rodriguez should he win this Sunday, revealing how his 2018 loss to the Puerto Rican “still eats away at me”.

While it has now been five years since Moloney suffered a controversial split decision loss against IBF bantamweight champ Rodriguez, the pain of that defeat – which doubled as the Aussie’s first world title attempt – still lingers.

In fact, should the 32-year-old defend his own WBO title for the first time against Mexican-American challenger Saul Sanchez this Sunday, he then wants to go straight into a bout with that same man who still holds IBF gold.

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Already, Arum has discussed the idea of having Moloney fight as the co-main to a proposed IBF lightweight title showdown between George Kambosos and Vasiliy Lomachenko, slated for Australia in either April or May.

As revealed this week by Fox Sports Australia, the Puerto Rican is one of three potential rivals with whom Moloney has “bad blood” – joining Japanese star Junto Nakatani and WBA champion Takuma Inoue.

Asked this week for his thoughts on earning revenge against Rodriguez, Moloney said: “That’s definitely one I need to get back before my career is done.

“It still eats away at me.

“Now that I’m a champion it’s not something I cry over, but still — whenever I watch that fight back — I think I won it.

“And what makes me want (the rematch) more is knowing how much I’ve improved since that fight.

“I know that if we get in there again, I’ll beat him.

“So I’m determined to make that fight happen and fingers crossed it can happen this year.

“I know he wants the fight.

“And I want the fight.

“So let’s hope we can get it on. I’m very confident I can beat him next time around.”

Pushed on the opportunity for revenge against Rodriguez, Moloney continued: “As soon as I won the world title (last May), it didn’t feel as good as I’d hoped.

“And that’s because I know I’m capable of even more.

“As soon as I became champion I was thinking ‘let’s become undisputed, let’s go bigger’.

“And that’s because I know I can.

“I really believe I can beat everyone in this division.

“But I’m also smart enough to know these big fights, these unifications, don’t happen if I slip up.

“So I’m treating this weekend’s fight like it’s going to be the hardest of my career.

“I know Sanchez is going to be so hungry to try and fight for a world title.

“But I also know his best isn’t enough.”

Aside from Rodriguez, another potential Moloney rival is undefeated Japanese star Nakatani, who viciously kayoed Moloney’s twin brother Andrew last year on his way to winning the WBO super flyweight title.

Now moving up to bantamweight in 2024, the southpaw is challenging WBC champ Alexandro Santiago for his title in February,

A third possible rival is WBA champion Takuma Inoue, whose megastar brother Naoya Inoue stopped Moloney in 2020 to retain his IBF and WBA straps.

According to The Ring, Moloney is currently the No.1 ranked bantamweight in the world, with Rodriguez right behind him.

“But there is still so much opinion about who is the best bantamweight now that (Naoya) Inoue has moved on,” Moloney continued.

“After I won the belt last year, Ring magazine put me at number one and that’s a huge honour.

“I feel a lot of people also think I’m number one.

“But Rodriguez has a belt, Takuma Inoue has a belt and we’ve got Nakatani fighting Santiago for a belt next month.

“So there’s still speculation about who the best bantamweight is.

“And I want to prove it’s me.

“Obviously the only way to determine the best is by having a unification bout, winning the other belts and beating the other champions, but until I get that opportunity I’ve just got to take out everyone they put in front of me in impressive fashion.

“Show my dominance in the division.”

Speaking with Fox Sports Australia earlier this week, Moloney said of Nakatani: “If he was to claim the belt, obviously I’d be extremely motivated to get one back there.

“Watching Andrew go down to him that night, it was devastating.

“I felt so bad for my brother.

“Felt I’d let him down in a sense too because, being the big brother, I wasn’t able to protect him and look after him.

“Plus, I not only had to sit there in the corner and watch someone knock my brother out, but then to start running around celebrating (while Andrew was unconscious) … he was very to have just become world champion but it’s very hard to sit there and take that.

“So if I can get one back, knock him out myself … that would be special.”