Although not signed yet, WBC/WBO 140 pound champion and John Molina have agreed to a fight that will take place on December 10th in Omaha, Nebraska and live on HBO, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“We cleared out the basketball game and Molina has agreed to the fight,” Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum said. “We’ve sent the contract. Everything is agreed to. Molina is a tough dude as he proved in the [Ruslan] Provodnikov fight [in June]. He’s a quality opponent.”
The nuts and bolts of the deal were negotiated by Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti and Tom Brown of TGB Promotions, but Arum and Haymon had to first sign off.
“I have absolutely no problem making fights with Haymon now. I respect him as a very smart guy, and I would do business with my fighters on his cards and I have no problem offering his fighters opportunities to fight my fighters on my cards,” Arum said. “That wasn’t true when we were in litigation, but the litigation is over now.”
Molina was one of four opponents HBO approved for Crawford. There was also interest in a unification fight with Eduard Troyanovsky (25-0, 22 KOs), 36, of Russia; Antonio Orozco (25-0, 16 KOs), 28, of San Diego; and 2008 Dominican Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz (18-1, 8 KOs), 32, a top contender. Arum said they tried to get Troyanovsky but there was not enough time to get it done with the fight so close. Orozco and promoter Golden Boy turned down the fight. Diaz, who very much wanted the fight and was seen by many as the most worthy available opponent, was never offered the bout.
“My [matchmakers] said Diaz is a stinker and that it would not be a good fight to watch,” Arum said.
