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Add FightsATW on GoogleSeven months from its beginning, Zuffa Boxing continues to expand its stable across the globe. Their latest acquisition is former bantamweight world champion Jason Moloney, who opened up to FightsATW in an exclusive interview to give the reasoning behind his move to Dana White’s boxing brainchild.
“As you know, I’ve been with Tasman Fighters for my past two fights, and I’m in the rebuilding phase of my career,” Moloney said in response to my asking why he joined the Other Side. “Obviously, I’m trying to become a world champion again and get back involved in the big fights. Back where I want to be.”
Moloney’s Tasman Fighters stablemate and fellow Australian Jai Opetaia smashed headlines as the first marquee fighter to join Zuffa Boxing shortly after its birth.
“Mick Francis is obviously the manager of Jai and had already been dealing with the guys at Zuffa,” Moloney explained. “I guess they had already had a conversation about who from their stable could join Zuffa and what opportunities were there. My name obviously came around, and they showed a quick interest in signing me. Mick presented the opportunity to me and Tony [Tolj], and…it felt exciting. It felt like a big opportunity, and I guess at the moment there are a lot of unknowns.”
White has been asked to be judged as a legitimate boxing promoter after 12 months. The UFC founder has faced serious pushback from rival promoters, most notably from Oscar De La Hoya and Eddie Hearn. The new promotion, seemingly with money to burn, began its relationship with the IBF in the worst possible fashion, ultimately leading to Opetaia being stripped of his IBF cruiserweight world title. The Australian is now in a legal dispute with the governing body.
“Are they doing their own league? Are they going to work with the sanctioning bodies or are they making their own title?” continued Moloney, “but ultimately, I wanted to get over to America and speak to some of the guys and find out how it was all going to work. We went to watch one of their shows and asked some questions. I felt at ease after going over there. I was pretty impressed; I was blown away, to be honest, with how they operate.
“It was a great night of boxing. They are elite operators. Dana White, Nick Khan, Turki Alalshikh and the guys involved are not mucking around. They want to take over and do things big, and they want to put on the biggest fights to make their mark in the sport. Yeah, I’m excited for what is next mate. We haven’t got a fight date locked in yet, but talks are progressing, and I hope to be back in the ring and back in the mix for a title pretty soon.”
Moloney (29-4, 20 KOs) lost his WBO bantamweight title to Yoshiki Takei over two years ago in Japan. For the first time in his career, he would fall to back-to-back defeats following a second-straight unanimous-decision loss to Tenshin Nasukawa. With his career facing its most turbulent period yet, Tasman Fighters rode into town to give the 35-year-old the two fights in his homeland. Moloney is currently ranked #3 with the WBC, #4 by the IBF and #5 by the WBO. However, if Moloney’s relationships with the governing bodies follow anything like that of Opetaia, his world title aspirations will hit a serious roadblock.
“Of course it was a concern because I want to be a world champion again,” Moloney added. “That’s every fighter’s goal! It is a shame to see the situation with Jai and everything that unfolded there. But in Zuffa’s next show, the main event is an IBF world title fight. It’s a bit confusing, and I don’t know exactly what is going on. You know, I can’t really control these things. I can just hope that everything smooths out and everyone can work together. But, like I said, we have the IBF world title fight and they are promoting Connor Benn vs Ryan Garcia for the WBC title. So they are showing that they are willing and able to put on world title fights. After speaking with them, they assured me that fighting for a world title was a possibility.
“They obviously have their own Zuffa belt; the only champion they got at the moment is Jai. Obviously that did end up causing issues with him fighting for the Zuffa belt. I just hope things can move forward positively. It’s my understanding that the Zuffa belt is similar to the Ring Magazine belt, which obviously carries a lot of respect and everyone wants that belt. I think that is eventually what the Zuffa belt is going to end up being.”
Moloney last graced the ring in April, with a relatively straightforward unanimous-decision victory against Andre Donovan in Fortitude Valley. Whether Moloney will hit the road, like much of his career, is yet to be determined, but his path has been firmly plotted.
“The meeting I had with Dana was pretty brief, but he seemed like a really great bloke,” Moloney said. “He seemed pretty excited to have me as part of the team; he was really nice. They seem pretty excited [in general]. I think they have had a pretty positive experience in the UFC with the Aussies. He can obviously see what we can bring to the table and the audience we can bring. I’ve always been a fan of Dana; I know he’s sometimes ruffled some feathers, but it was exciting to meet him.
“There is no specific plan at this stage other than getting back involved in the big fights, and Zuffa have the ability to put on those big fights. They have the budget, network and broadcaster. They are not looking to put on any mismatches; they want real fights! They’ve had eight or nine shows now, and they’ve been packed with great fights. I’m craving activity and I’m certain Zuffa will provide me with that.”
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