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Expect the Blood to Flow When Josesito Lopez Meets John Molina on Saturday

On Saturday, two Southern California prizefighters with similar journeys finally intersect when Riverside’s Josesito “Riverside Rocky” Lopez (36-8, 19 KOs) clashes with John “The Gladiator” Molina Jr. (30-8, 24 KOs) in a 10-round welterweight clash at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The bout will be televised on FOX pay-per-view. Expect the blood to flow.
“Me and Josesito are both guys who took tough roads to get here and the fans love us because of what we always put into the ring. We leave everything in there and that’s why the fans know this fight is going to be one to remember,” said Molina, 36.
For years both have been considered the most amiable and likeable pugilists in the boxing world until they step inside the ropes. Both are known for their rugged styles.
“I don’t underestimate John Molina Jr. I’ve seen him a lot throughout the years, just like I’m sure he’s seen me,” said Lopez, 35, whose hometown Riverside is within 20 miles from Molina’s hometown Covina. “We know each other quite well, so the fans are in for a good one. We’ve both proven we have the heart and the will, now we have to prove it against each other.”
Decades ago Lopez was a rail-thin determined athlete known for never giving up. His cross country running background seemed to help his boxing and he never cared who he fought just as long as he could fight.
Molina was a completely different story. He was a wrestler in high school and it was after graduating from high school that he tried boxing. He still harbored a wrestling stance and a hard nose attitude but he could always punch.
Josesito and Valero
The first time Lopez fought in a prize ring he was matched tough against Allen Litzau, the older brother of sterling prospect Jason Litzau. The Top Rank fight card took place in Las Vegas and in the first round Lopez opened up with both guns and took Litzau out of there. Despite the win, Top Rank showed no interest in Lopez.
By 2009 it was pretty apparent to anyone in Southern California that Lopez was a gritty fighter with a slightly awkward style. But plain and simple he was a pure fighter. Around this time Lopez was one of multiple boxers asked to travel to an Orange County boxing gym to provide sparring for a powerful and speedy Venezuelan fighter named Edwin Valero.
About 10 boxers showed up early at a Costa Mesa boxing gym as Valero and his trainer at the time Robert Alcazar lined up the sparring partners. In a remarkable display of power Valero knocked out six successive opponents in the sparring session. One by one they entered the boxing ring and one by one they were carried out. In my more than 30 years of covering boxing I had never seen anything like it.
Finally, they decided to put Riverside’s Lopez in the ring with Valero. Though the left-handed assassin attacked Lopez like he had attacked the others, the thin Riverside boxer lasted the entire round. Valero didn’t show any emotion or disappointment. Lopez proceeded to spar with Valero another eight or nine rounds. He was never knocked down by Valero whose entire career was 27 wins and 27 knockouts. He was arrested a year later for murdering his wife and subsequently found dead in his jail cell in April 2010.
Making of Riverside Rocky
In 2011, Lopez met Mike Dallas Jr. in a battle for the vacant NABF lightweight title. He walked away with a knockout win in the seventh to earn a televised clash with an undefeated Las Vegas-based fighter.
Jessie Vargas was the local fighter when he clashed with Lopez in a welterweight match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was on the undercard of a Floyd Mayweather fight versus Victor Ortiz for the welterweight world title on September 17, 2011. Once again Lopez was the victim of hometown scoring, though it was an extremely close fight. He lost by split decision to Vargas.
It was the third time a Las Vegas fighter would beat Lopez by decision in Las Vegas.
A match between Lopez and Victor Ortiz was proposed when original foe Andre Berto tested positive for PEDs. Ortiz had just lost the world title to Mayweather and was looking to regain footing with a rematch with Berto. When the fight fell apart, a quick search took place and someone suggested Lopez. He immediately accepted the fight.
Publicist extraordinaire Bill Caplan suggested that the two Southern California-based fighters host mock crosstown bets with Riverside’s mayor betting a sack of oranges against Oxnard’s mayor proposing a box of strawberries if his fighter Ortiz lost. It was also during this media blitz that Caplan christened Lopez with the nickname “Riverside Rocky.” Boy did he live up to it when he broke Ortiz’s jaw and won by technical knockout in the ninth round at Staples Center.
Lopez continued to prove he could fight the best and never said no to any challenge including Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Andre Berto, Marcos Maidana and Keith Thurman. He’s been tabbed one of the most respected warriors in the sport by many fellow fighters.
John John
Unlike most in the sport, Molina was in his 20’s when he began boxing as an amateur and was 23 years old when he turned pro. But he received a crash course under the guidance of boxing guru Ben Lira who liked Molina’s natural power.
“He’s never out of a fight because he can crack and with one punch change the outcome of any fight,” said Lira.
It proved prophetic in numerous fights in Molina’s career.
Because of an earlier Puerto Rican boxer named John Molina, who went by the name John John Molina, boxing writers were quick to add the nickname John John to this John Molina. But he preferred to be called simply John. Lately, the nickname “the Gladiator” has been used and with reason.
Molina was fast-tracked because of his age and lost his first world title bid by knockout to Antonio DeMarco in the first round. He was caught cold. Many felt his career might be over when he was matched with speedy Mickey Bey in 2013. And through nine rounds Bey was winning every round. Then came the 10th and final round and instead of being careful Bey was caught with a Molina power shot and was stopped. It proved what his old trainer had always maintained: it’s never over until it’s over when Molina is in the boxing ring.
That was followed a year later with a war with Argentina’s wrecking machine Lucas Matthysse. Each fighter was decked twice in a fight that had fans roaring with excitement at the StubHub Center in Carson. After the fight Molina asked “did you enjoy the fight?”
That’s Molina, always giving fans an exciting performance.
He lost to WBO super lightweight titlist Terence Crawford in 2016 after defeating Russian slugger Ruslan Provodnikov. Then he was matched with another Russian, Ivan Redkach in 2017, and was seemingly knocked down and out in the second round. Redkach looked to end the fight in the third round but was instead floored by Molina. In the fourth round Molina smelled a knockout and poured on the blows to end the fight by knockout.
With Molina the fight is never over until the final bell.
In his last confrontation he collided with former lightweight world champion Omar Figueroa in Los Angeles. Neither fighter gave an inch and after 10 rounds of constant punching the judges ruled Figueroa the winner. Molina shrugged off the decision. He gave his best and like all sluggers he was there for the knockout.
Now he faces another gladiator like himself. It’s the type of fight that should have happened years ago. Both are very familiar with each other’s career and fighting style.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve seen just about everything in the sport. There’s nothing new that Josesito can do to surprise me,” said Molina at the L.A. press conference. “At the end of the day, this is a fight. We’re well prepared, and I know he is as well.”
Lopez agrees.
“It’s going to be an exciting fight. I’ve prepared for battle and I’m going to win. I’m ready to go through anything to get this victory,” said Lopez in L.A. “I don’t feel pressure to make this an action fight, because this is one of those matchups where it’s just going to happen naturally. This is an evenly-matched fight and everyone is going to get their money’s worth.”
After 16 years they finally meet in the prize ring.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More
It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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