Before and since winning the IBF junior middleweight title against Cornelius “K-9” Bundrage (32-5, 19 KOs) on February 23rd in Detroit, Ishe “Sugar Shay” Smith (25-5, 11 KOs) has stated that he would like to face perennial contender “King” Carlos Molina (21-5-2, 6 KOs) in his first title defense, which he would like to be in his hometown of Las Vegas.
“I want to give Carlos Molina a shot; he deserves it. I want to defend this title in front of my hometown fans,” said Smith after defeating Bundrage.
After nearly a week of reading headlines and quotes like this about Smith and other headlines and quotes from Smith’s promoter, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Molina has finally responded.
“I want to fight Ishe in his hometown of Las Vegas. Let’s make it happen on the May 4th undercard, so all the fans can see who’s the best fighter at junior middleweight,” said Molina.
On May 4th in Las Vegas, current WBA junior middleweight super champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather makes his return to the ring against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero for the WBC welterweight title in what is expected to be the most watched boxing event of the year. The Mayweather-Guerrero bout was to be co-headlined by the junior middleweight championship bout between Austin “No Doubt” Trout and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez before Alvarez removed himself from the card because he was not given a guarantee that he would face Mayweather in September.
The Alvarez-Trout cancellation paves the way for another junior middleweight championship showdown in Smith-Molina. If Smith and Molina were to be added to the May 4th event, for the first time in recent memory, millions of fans would be given the opportunity to watch two meaningful championship bouts on the same pay-per-view event.
What a night of boxing it could be!
