‘King’ Carlos Molina: I Know I Could Beat Canelo or Lara (Again)

Watching Saturday night’s pay-per-view fight between former champions Saul Alvarez and Erislandy Lara, IBF Light Middleweight Champion “King” Carlos Molina had to have felt like he wasn’t invited to his own party.

Alvarez and Lara duked it out this past Saturday (July 12) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with Alvarez winning a close decision over a gun-shy Lara. And while an old-school fighter like Molina appreciates when top contenders don’t make excuses and face each other, what bothers the 31-year-old champion is the way the fight was billed.

“The media kept saying that Canelo and Lara was supposedly between the two best fighters at 154 lbs, like I’m not even there,” said Molina. “They’re trying to overlook me and not give me a chance. And after the way they both looked in there, I know I could beat both those guys. I already beat Lara, not officially, but in the eyes of most people who saw the fight.”

Molina has a strong case. When Molina took on Lara in March of 2011, despite what the scorecards said (the fight was ruled a majority draw with two judges scoring 95-95 and one giving Molina the win with a much more accurate 97-93 tally), Molina handled Lara much more handily than Alvarez.

“Every time you see a fight in your weight class, you try to see how you would fight them and neither guy looked really spectacular. Give me the chance and I’ll do to Canelo what I did to Lara. I’m the true champion in this weight class.”

Molina (22-5-2, 6 KOs) is currently training hard for his next fight, a defense against former champion Cornelius Bundrage in Cancun, Mexico.