A Tale of Two Jasons
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 May 2023
One Jason (Moloney) had vowed to go out swinging to stop his vaunted opponent within the distance but surprised everybody including his foe by waltzing Mathilda his way to survive and eke out a close points victory.
The other Jason (Tatum) had made no pre-game promises but came out with his hands blazing especially from the three points territory on the way to posting a game 7 record of 51 points to power his team to smashing victory and to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Australian Jason Moloney had everybody fooled by vowing almost from the official announcement of his fight against heavy handed Filipino Vincent Astrolabio for the vacant WBO bantamweight crown that he would add Astrolabio to the list of Filipino fighters he has knocked out. In fact heading to the fight this weekend in Stockton, California, he repeated the vow with his camp even bandying about his second round knockout of a noted formerly world rated Filipino fighter.
Of course, Astrolabio welcomed the prospect of a shoot out as Vincent had in response vowed to avenge the knockout defeats of his luckless countrymen. And with this background, American boxing fans who bought tickets to see the fight live expected a slambang affair.
Pero fake news lang pala.
Some may call it psywar intended to rile up Astrolabio and upset his fight plans and preparations but certainly it did not sit well with the mostly American audience.
As revered columnist Quinito Henson reported, Moloney was roundly booed by the crowd as he made his way from the ring after the official decision was announced that he had won by majority decision which was also met by hiss from the audience.
American boxing audience are used to Floyd Mayweather Jr winning most of his fights by decision but at least Floyd never made bold pre-fight claims and predictions. They were clearly disappointed that Moloney never attempted to make good his promise to deliver an all action fight against Astrolabio with the aim of adding him to his list of KO victims.
In the first few rounds, Moloney met Astrolabio in the center of the ring where the two engaged in jab exchange. But in the succeeding rounds, when Astrolabio tried for more heated engagements, Moloney began to unravel his real fight plan, which was to box and move and to hold and clinch whenever he felt he was at a disadvantage.
Jason not only continued but sustained such a confrontation averse stance in the middle rounds believing he was leading as he had banked enough earlier rounds.
To Astrolabio's credit, he persisted in making a real fight of it, hurting the Australian on some occasions but it was evidently clear that Moloney would not want a real clash of power and was more interested in hearing the final bell in one piece.
Moloney was originally named as Nonito Donaire's opponent for the vacant WBC bantamweight crown but pulled out of negotiations to vie for the vacant WBO belt.
Moloney and his camp perhaps thought that his antics will not work with a veteran as Donaire whose power and fighting prowess it was evident he respected.
In defeat, Astrolabio on the other hand was even hailed by the American audience for his persistence to make it a good fight especially in the last three rounds where a local fight commentator said Moloney was hopping like Australia's famous marsupial, a kangaroo on attack and in attempt to avoid the Filipino's determined assault.
However, there's lessons to be learned not only by Astrolabio but other Filipino world campaigners, that is the opposition will resort to psywar to haywire our plans and preparations.
The other is that we have to come trained and prepared for anything the opponents could spring up at fight time. That means, we really have to bone up on our boxing skills including ring movements.
Congratulations by the way to Jason Tatum and the Boston Celtics for outlasting the Joel Embiid-led Philadelphia 76ers in their best of seven series 4 games to 3 after being down 2-3 and on the verge of being eliminated.
With Tatum playing the way he does, the Celtics may go all the way to the NBA championship!
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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