World title ‘destiny’ as Moloney lives out wild dream

Murray Wenzel |

Andrew Moloney (l) hopes to become a world champion like twin Jason by beating Junto Nakatani (r).
Andrew Moloney (l) hopes to become a world champion like twin Jason by beating Junto Nakatani (r).

Andrew Moloney is living out his “wildest dream” and says there’s no way he won’t join his twin brother Jason as a world boxing champion.

Moloney will face Japan’s Junto Nakatani for the vacated WBO super flyweight world title on the Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko mega card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Sunday (AEST).

The fight comes exactly a week after Jason won his own world title in nearby Stockton, California.

The 32-year-old’s have ground out superb professional careers for a decade, a Moloney win in Vegas the ticket for the pair to explode on home soil with a blockbuster double-header title defence.

“It’s just amazing,” Moloney said.

“I was going to say it’s a dream come true, but this is even bigger, better than that.

“It’s the wildest dream, way bigger than anything I can ever imagined.

“To fight for a world title here in Vegas at the Grand, one week after my brother became a world champ.

“Now it’s my turn … on one of the biggest cards of the year. You couldn’t write the story any better, this is destiny.”

Moloney (25-2, 16KOs) held the interim WBA title in 2019 but was denied fully-fledged status in a spicy trilogy with Joshua Franco that began in a Las Vegas COVID bubble three years ago.

A cruel no decision in their second fight was declared when Franco’s badly cut eye was controversially ruled to be from an accidental headbutt.

The Australian lost to Franco either side of that but has bounced back emphatically, winning four times inside 12 months to earn another shot.

It won’t come easy against the Japanese star, who twice defended his WBO flyweight title before moving up a division.

Nakatani (24-0, 18 KOs) is considered his country’s brightest boxing talent behind three-division world champion Naoya Inoue, who beat Andrew’s brother before he won his world title last week.

Nakatani beat Francisco Rodriguez in his division debut to set up the fight for the belt vacated by his countryman Kazuto Ioka.

“There’s no doubt Junto is good fighter,” Moloney said.

“Was a world champion, undefeated and pretty avoided in this division.

“As you’ve seen with me and my brother, we’ll fight anyone, anytime and I’m glad things played out like this.”

Nakatani said he “wants to make a big impression on Las Vegas fans and all over the world” but Moloney has other ideas.

“Jason and I have done this side by side and it’s only fitting we go home with those belts,” he said.

“There’s no way I’m leaving that ring without that belt.”

AAP