Welterweight prospect Jamal James (18-0 9KO’s) will be taking on former 2008 U.S. Olympian Javier Molina (17-1 8KO’s) at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. The bout will be part of the Premiere Boxing Champions series Toe-To-Toe Tuesdays, televised live on Fox Sports 1 at 11pmET/ 8pmPT.
James is 27 years of age and stands at 6’2 in height. He has extremely long arms and a tall frame for the welterweight division. He likes to make use of his physical attributes by working off his jab and keeping his opponents at a distance. James moves around the ring well and possesses solid boxing skills. In his last fight in September, he took a step up in class and fought the tough Juan Carlos Abreu from the Dominican republic who was (18-1-1 17KO’s) at the time. In that fight, James was forced to deal with some adversity when he suffered a knockdown in the 4th round only to get up and knockdown his opponent in the 6th and win a clear 10 round decision.
James will be taking yet another step up in class when he faces former Olympian in Molina who has an outstanding amateur background and is the most accomplished fighter James has yet to face in his young and promising career.
Molina stands at 5’9 in height and has decent size for a welterweight. Much like James, he’s stylistically more of a boxer than anything else. He also prefers to fight at a distance and keep his opponents at the end of his punches. His amateur career was outstanding and he represented the U.S. in the 2008 Olympics.
However, as a professional he’s yet to face any real test despite already having suffered a loss to a 13-1 journeymen. Clearly, his amateur success hasn’t translated over during his professional career, but he will be looking to change things against his biggest step up in class thus far.
In my opinion, Match ups like these should be happening a lot more often in the sport of boxing where two young hungry fighters still in the prospect stage take on one another.
It’s not always good for a young prospect to fight a steady diet of fighters past their primes or older journeymen who are no longer as passionate about the sport as they once were. Tonight, fans will have an opportunity to watch two young prospects, both with dreams of becoming world champion, take on one another with the winner solidifying himself as one of the top prospects in the welterweight division.
