CBC-Sports

Molitor not happy, but a win's a win

June 29, 2009 11:41 AM | Posted by   Chris Iorfida  

Steve Molitor was understandably not thrilled with his comeback performance, but he can be legitimately pleased with the way he closed the show.

Molitor (29-1, 11 knockouts) won a hard-fought split decision over Heriberto Ruiz on June 25 in Rama, Ont., his first bout since suffering his lone loss, a one-sided knockout.

With blood dripping down into his eyes, an awkward opponent in front of him and the fight getting closer by the minute, Molitor put together two gutsy rounds to create some breathing room on the scorecards.

Sure, Ruiz inexplicably didn’t let his hands go much in the final two rounds of the 122-pound junior featherweight bout. But that’s not Molitor’s fault, and the Canadian did a good job of getting off first.

I must admit I was a bit concerned when the fight went to the judges. Ontario doesn’t have a ton of experience with world-class bouts, and even busy jurisdictions can feature some wacky scoring interpretations.

My concerns were allayed by the judges, who were obviously trying hard to discern what had gone on in the matchup of counterpunchers. All three scored the bout 8-4 – two for Molitor, one for Ruiz.

If anything, it was the Harry Davis card in favour of Ruiz that was a bit puzzling. Giving the Mexican every benefit of the doubt you could have seen him eking out the bout, but a four-round edge was too much.

Molitor didn’t completely put away the demons caused by a fourth-round knockout loss last November to Celestino Caballero in a title unification match.

He appeared skittish on the too-rare occasions Ruiz launched an attack, and failed to stay in the pocket and counter his opponent like in many of his previous 28 victories. Had he been facing someone with a punch, things could have been very dicey, indeed.

And while he was much, much busier than Ruiz, it was his often his opponent who landed the sharper blows.

But that’s what these types of bouts are for – getting confidence back and being able to make mistakes.

It’s not telling tales out of school to state that Molitor will never be among the elite pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. His deficiencies in punching power and infighting are simply too much to overcome against the best of the best.

But with Caballero likely to move up in weight this year and probably vacating his belts, Molitor is well positioned in the coming months to carve out another title reign in his division.

In a country (outside of Quebec) where you can hardly find world-class sparring, that’s no small feat.

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