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Taking a page out of the Bernard Hopkins’ immortality book, 41-year old Cornelius “K9” Bundrage banked on two knockdowns to score a unanimous decision victory over Carlos Molina to reclaim the IBF Super Middleweight title on Saturday night at the Grand Oasis resort in Cancun, Mexico.
A Fast start
K9 came charging off the gates by wobbling Molina very early in the first round and dropping him later in the round with a solid right hand to the chin. Molina recovered but Bundrage scored another knockdown in Round 2 when he cornered the champion near the ropes. Although Molina calmed the storm in the next two rounds, Bundrage took control of the bout with harder and cleaner punches to come up with a 117-106,116-109 and 115-110 unanimous decision victory and become the oldest person to win a boxing world title at 154 pounds.
Long layoff
Molina was coming off a long 13 month layoff after winning the title from Ishe Smith during the Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Canelo Alvarez bout last year. Molina was originally scheduled to make his first title defense last March 8 against Jermal Challo but that fight was stalled when Molina was arrested in Las Vegas a few days before the fight on an outstanding warrant for “failing to register as a sex offender” in a Wisconsin case year ago. While being incarcerated, police also discovered that Molina entered the United States illegally and was subsequently deported to Mexico. With a mandatory defense to make and unable to fight in the US, Molina’s promoter Leo Margules arranged a bout with Cornelius Bundrage in Mexico.
Headed Opposite Directions
Bundrage was a former semi-finalist on the 2nd season on television’s reality boxing show The Contender. He won the IBF 154 title by knocking out Cory Spinks in 2010 and made two successful title defenses before losing to Ishe Smith last year. Smith in turn, lost the belt to Molina during his first defense.
But K9 fought his way back to title contention by outpointing the undefeated Joey Hernandez in a title eliminator bout last January. The win moved Bundrage to the mandatory challenger position against Molina. Beating Molina on Saturday made Bundrage a two time world champion while Carlos Molina’s career looked headed the opposite direction.
With his legal troubles in the US, the 31 year old Molina will be out of the big fights. He will have to settle fighting against fringe opponents in Mexico. Without a world title belt to dangle, big name opponents would take a pass on a dangerous opponent with a notorious reputation. So unless Molina settles his legal woes in the US, his career could be in serious limbo.
