By Ian S Palmer
Cory Spinks will take on Carlos Molina in a good junior middleweight matchup on Friday Feb. 1 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. Spinks, the son of former World Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks and nephew of former heavyweight and light heavyweight champ Michael Spinks, cant’ afford another loss on his record for fear of becoming just another journeyman fighter. Spinks is the former undisputed welterweight king and a former two-time titleholder in the junior middleweight class, but has fallen on rough times lately.
With the boxing organizations being as complicated as they are, this bout is being billed as an eliminator by the IBF for their number two world ranking. At the moment, Molina is ranked number four by the organization and Spinks is listed at number 12. The first two spots in the IBF rankings are vacant for some reason and the IBF has decided the winner of this bout will jump to number two. Of course, whoever wins this match will then likely be forced to box another ranked fighter to get to number one. So there you go, it’s not really that complicated after all is it?
Anyway, the IBF champion is currently Cornelius Bundrage and the goal for Molina and Spinks is to get a shot at him. However, Spinks has already lost to him twice as Bundrage stopped him in the fifth round in August of 2010 and took his title and then stopped him again in their rematch in the seventh round last June. Spinks is a 34-year-old southpaw from St. Louis with a record of 39-7 with 11 Kos. He doesn’t possess much in the power department and quite frankly his chin is a bit suspect, but when he’s on his game he’s a fine boxer. He’s just under 5-feet 10 inches with a 71-inch reach.
Spinks won the IBF welterweight crown way back in 2003 with a unanimous decision win over Michele Piccirillo in Italy. The two had fought a year earlier in Italy for the vacant title with Piccirillo winning a unanimous decision. Spinks then added the WBA and WBC titles nine months later by beating Ricardo Mayorga by majority decision. He defended his belts against Zab Judah and Miguel Angel Gonzalez by unanimous decisions before getting knocked out in the ninth round by Judah in a 2005 rematch. Spinks beat Roman Karmazin by majority decision in 2006 for the IBF Jr. Middleweight Championship and defended it by unanimous decision against Rodney Jones.
He moved up in weight and took on WBO and WBC Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor in 2007 and lost a split decision. He lost another split decision and his title in his next fight against Verno Phillips. A year later he regained the belt with a split decision over Deandre Latimore and then lost it to Bundrage 16 months later. He’s won unanimous decisions over Shakir Ashanti and Sechew Powell since then. Spinks has also gone through periods of inactivity and hasn’t had a knockout since 2001 when he stopped Dennis Allen in the second round.
The 29-year-old Molina of Mexico carries a 20-5 record with just 6 Kos and arguably has less power than Spinks. He’s got a 70-inch reach and stands 5-foot-nine in height. But while Molina doesn’t have a lot of power he’s still a very aggressive boxer with a solid chin. He has some decent wins over some pretty good opponents in Kermit Cintron and Allen Conyers and fought to a draw against Erislandy Lara. He was disqualified in his last big bout against James Kirkland
in the 10th round in March of last year and then bounced back with a 10-round unanimous decision over Damian Frias in August.
Spinks has a lot of heart, but unfortunately it looks like his time as an elite boxer has come and gone. Look for Molina to overwhelm him and win the bout by a unanimous decision or late stoppage.
