WBSS Quarterfinals week 3 of 6 brings a strong doubleheader to Orlando.
This will be shorter than my normal previews, but don’t let that sound like a negative about this main event. I’m really looking forward to it. IBF bantamweight titleholder Emmanuel “Manny” Rodriguez (18-0, 12 KOs) first came to my attention when Premier Boxing Champions featured him on a pair of shows in late 2015, early 2016. Manny looked like a potential future titleholder with a pair of dominant wins over reasonable competition levels given where he was in his career at the time. PBC stopped having so many dates, however, and he was one of many casualties of those temporary cuts. While Rodriguez still fought twice in 2017, both fights were back in Puerto Rico and lacked any sort of the same sense of exposure. Even his triumphant and downright dominant win over Paul Butler to take the belt in May landed with a thud here stateside. It happened in the UK on the undercard of Bellew-Haye II, a card that no one really cared about on this side of the pond despite it being huge locally. Still, Manny Rodriguez absolutely dismantled the veteran over the distance and looked every bit the talented titleholder he is.
Australian slugger Jason Moloney (17-0, 14 KOs) and his super flyweight brother Andrew are two of the best prospects in boxing’s lower divisions. There isn’t a ton to go over on his resume as it is local prospect fair for he most part, but last time out Jason did get a cuts stoppage on longtime Japanese contender Kohei Kono after six one sided rounds. Moloney floored his opponent early in that fight too. Kono is normally quite durable, but Jason Moloney is a puncher in there. He’s not crude either. The Australian is a well school fighter with loads of amateur experience and real power in his hands. There is little not to like. This tournament and title fight is two young, unbeaten top bantamweights getting in the ring together to sort out their skills. Thank you, World Boxing Super Series. This is an awesome fight for a quarterfinal. Even better, stylistically it should be a barn burner too. Both men are aggressive and like to engage. A Monster awaits the winner too. Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue gets the winner in the second round. Either way, that’s an awesome fight as well. Everything is coming up roses in the build up to Rodriguez-Moloney in my view.
In the cruiserweight tournament quarterfinals, season one semifinalist Yunier Dorticos (22-1, 21 KOs) takes a second crack at the Ali Trophy starting against Polish contender Mateusz Masternak (41-4, 28 KOs). I think this is a sneaky competitive matchup. While many view the Cuban as a huge favorite here, I’m only slightly favoring him. Masternak is a durable guy. Dorticos can truly crack so maybe he’ll just beat the Pole down early, but if not then I could see him getting discouraged on the heels of being dominated by Murat Gassiev in season one’s semifinals. I’d feel better about this one if he took a tune up in between, but coming off a one sided first loss this isn’t easy. Masternak is likely to drag him deep. While Dorticos responded well late against Youri Kalenga in his biggest win in 2016, he otherwise doesn’t have a lot of experience late and may not have the same confidence. I’m curious to see how this one plays out. I still expect Yunier to get the win here though, I should repeat. I just don’t think it is necessarily a foregone conclusion.
The DAZN stream is listed as starting at 8 PM Eastern. Usually we get pretty thorough undercards for these shows too. Given that this is on the East Coast in the states, this time either means that the two tournament fights will be on quite late or they are forgoing a long preliminary broadcast. There isn’t much of note on the undercard, however, so I am hoping for the latter. Either way, this show is conflicting internally at DAZN with the Matchroom show in Boston essentially on at the same time. Let’s hope this is avoided in the future.
