Jason Moloney is finally set for his next attempt at becoming a bantamweight titlist.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that a deal has been reached and a date set for Moloney’s ordered vacant WBO bantamweight title fight versus Vincent Astrolabio. Their bout is set to take place May 13, as the ESPN co-feature to the already announced Janibek Alimkhanuly-Steven Butler WBO middleweight title fight.
A location has yet to be confirmed for what is now a title fight doubleheader.
Moloney (25-2, 19KOs) suffered his only two defeats in prior title bids and remains one of the top bantamweights in the world. The 32-year-old contender from Kingscliff, Australia dropped a tightly contested split decision to Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez in their October 2018 IBF title fight in Orlando, Florida and suffered a seventh-round stoppage to Naoya Inoue in their October 2020 WBA/IBF title fight in Las Vegas.
Inoue (24-0, 21KOs) went on to fully unify the bantamweight division before vacating all four major titles to compete at junior featherweight. He will next face unbeaten WBC and WBO champ Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8KOs) later this summer.
Moloney has won four straight since heading into his latest title challenge. It comes as twin brother Andrew Moloney (25-2, 16KOs) is set to face Japan’s Junto Nakatani (24-0, 18KOs) for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title on a separate Top Rank card one week later in Las Vegas.
He emerged as the number-one contender with the WBC following a twelve-round win over Nawaphon Kaikanha in their title eliminator last October 16 in Melbourne. Moloney also elevated to the number-one position with the WBO, whose title he chose to pursue after his team abandoned talks for a previously ordered vacant WBC title fight versus former four-division champ Nonito Donaire (42-7, 28KOs).
Astrolabio (18-3, 13KOs) also had his choice of which vacant title to pursue.
The 25-year Filipino—who now lives and trains in Las Vegas—was in line to next face Rodriguez in a vacant IBF title fight after both won separate eliminators in the fourth quarter of 2021. Astrolabio earned his place in line after a one-sided beatdown of Nikolai Potapov en route to a sixth-round knockout last December 17 in Las Vegas.
The win capped a breakout year for Astrolabio, who began his 2022 campaign with a ten-round decision victory over former lineal junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last February 26 in Dubai. Following the Potapov win and Inoue’s title vacancy, Astrolabio and Rodriguez were ordered to enter talks for a title fight that seemed all but certain to make its way to the schedule.
Astrolabio’s team instead fancied a shot at Moloney in the second official bantamweight title fight in the post-Inoue era. Fittingly, first up is the April 16 vacant WBA title fight between Takuma Inoue—Naoya’s younger brother—and Liborio Solis in Tokyo.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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