By Ian S Palmer
Carl Frampton takes on Steve Molitor of Canada on Sat. Sept. 22 at home at Belfast, Northern Ireland’s Odyssey Arena. Frampton was originally scheduled to meet Kiko Martinez, but he pulled out because of an injury. Most observers feel he’s now facing a tougher opponent in former two-time world IBF champion Molitor in his defence of the IBF International and Commonwealth Super Bantamweight crowns.
He’s going to have his hands full with the 32-year-old southpaw Molitor, who has won all four of his fights in the UK over the years. The Canadian said he loves fighting overseas and is excited to be meeting Frampton even though me may not be one of the division’s elite boxers. He added that Frampton, Kid Galahad, and Scott Quigg are all trying to make names for themselves in the competitive 122 lb. division, but they won’t be doing it against him.
Ex-world champion Barry McGuigan, who’s now Frampton’s manager, admitted that Molitor poses a tougher threat than Martinez since he’s been a world champion and has fought at a higher level than Martinez has. He said sooner or later Frampton’s going to have to step in with the best in the world though to prove just how good he is. McGuigan said they could have chosen an easier opponent, but Frampton is confident that he can handle Molitor at this stage in his career.
There’s been a war of the words between the two with Molitor saying Frampton’s not ready to step up in class yet. However, Frampton said he realizes this is a huge step forward and he’s ready for the challenge. He doesn’t have much experience though as his record of 15-0 with 9 KOs indicates. He turned pro in 2009 and has been pretty active since then. He’s already fought twice this year with his last bout being a 12-round unanimous decision win against Raul Hirales in May.
Molitor comes into the fight with a 34-2 record with 12 Kos. He turned pro back in 2000 and has fought some good boxers in Scotty Olson, Michael Hunter, Takalani Ndlovu, Ricardo Castillo, Fahsan 3K Battery, Fernando Beltran, and Jason Booth. His losses were a unanimous decision to Ndlovu last year and a fourth-round knockout to Celestino Caballero in 2008. He won the IBF world title in England in 2006 when he stopped Hunter in the fifth round and then defended it five times before his loss to Caballero.
Molitor then won the vacant title in a bout against Ndlovu in 2010 and defended it twice before losing in a rematch last year. His last fight was a split decision against Sebastien Gauthier in Quebec, Canada last November. He’s not really known as a hard hitter, but he’s actually got deceiving power even though his KO percentage is quite low. Molitor often starts slow and sometimes takes rounds off. He won’t be able to do this in Belfast though as he’ll need all the points he can get.
The Canadian challenger might be right about Frampton when he says he’s not ready to step up in class. Molitor seems to get a psychological lift when fighting in Britain and this should spur him on to victory.
