rees almost let dude get murderedReal shyt.... What did Butler do to Jack Reese? He should've called it after the second KD.
5/13 ESPN: Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Steven Butler (WBO Middleweight Title) / Jason Moloney vs Vincent Astrolabio (vacant WBO Bantamweight Title)
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Jason Moloney: I Broke My Hand In 3rd Or 4th Round, It Hurt Every Time I Threw It
BY JAKE DONOVAN
Published Sun May 14, 2023, 01:14 PM EDT
It was not the way that Jason Moloney envisioned his first title win.
The veteran bantamweight from Australia claimed a major belt on his third try but had to overcome a broken hand to turn away the challenge of the Philippines’ Vincent Astrolabio. A one-handed Moloney had enough in him to get the job done for more than eight rounds following the injury to win on two of the three scorecards and claim the vacant WBO bantamweight title in the process.
“I broke my hand in the third or fourth round,” Moloney confessed after the fight. “It hurt every time I threw it. But I knew this was my last chance to make my dream come true.”
Moloney (26-2, 19KOs) won by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 on the two cards in his favor which overruled a 114-114 tally to produce the majority decision Saturday evening at Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.
Interestingly, Moloney’s punch output was unaffected. In fact, Compubox statistics saw increased accuracy in his total punches from the sixth through eleventh rounds. Moloney was credited with outlanding Astrolabio (18-4, 13KOs) in nine of the twelve rounds, with Astrolabio landing more punches in rounds nine and twelve, while Compubox had both landing seven punches apiece in round eight.
Astrolabio threw as many or more punches in every round but the first and fifth, but was significantly less accurate. Moloney turned his injury into a positive in that regard. He made better use of his jab and picked his spots with his power punches to preserve the title win.
“I thought I won it going away, but all that matters is the victory,” noted Moloney, whose previous defeats came in failed title bids versus Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2018 and Naoya Inoue in 2020. “And now I have this belt for the rest of my life.”