Andrew Moloney has revealed he is in negotiations for an immediate rematch Pedro Guevara with a target date of November.
The 33-year-old junior bantamweight contender was on the wrong end of a split decision against Guevara in May when they met over 12 rounds on the undercard of the George Kambosos Jr versus Vasiliy Lomachenko bout in Perth, Western Australia. Judge Samantha Bulner saw Moloney as the winner 116-113, but judges Humberto Olivares and Zanashir Taznaa disagreed, both handing in cards of 115-113 for Guevara.
Moloney was adamant he had won the bout and even vowed to walk away from the sport in his post-fight interview in the ring. When the emotion of the loss wore off Moloney put his retirement on hold, but he remains convinced to this day that he was robbed of victory.
“It was a really disappointing fight result,” said Moloney (26-4, 16 KOs) to Beyond The Ropes on 7plus. “I really felt that I won that fight convincingly. It’s hard because I always leave everything in the ring but on that night, I honestly felt that I was in total control of the fight.
“On fight night, I felt like I was winning ten rounds to two. That’s the way my corner was seeing it, too; that’s the way we all thought it was going. It was almost like I didn’t need to do anything more, I was winning, and then not getting a decision at the end of the fight was gut-wrenching.”
Moloney entered the fight with an injury after tearing his biceps 10 days out from the bout, hampering his ability to throw his left hook. He has since had surgery to repair the damaged muscle and says it has healed well.
While Moloney has been recovering, the 35-year-old Guevara (42-4-1, 22 KOs) has been plotting his own ring return in October. Team Moloney has petitioned Guevara to sit out for an extra month in order to make the more lucrative rematch.
“I’m just really hoping that we can get this rematch done,” said Moloney, 33. “We’ve started talks with his team now. I know he’s trying to organize another fight against someone else in Mexico in October, and we’ve said to him I’ll be ready in November, just wait, this is going to be a bigger fight.
“He did promise me the rematch, so I’m really hopeful we can get it done, but it’s still early stages at the moment.”
Moloney added: “I’ll fight him wherever, to be honest. But I think it makes sense to either do it in America or here in Australia. He’s not with a big promoter in Mexico and we could pay him more over here than what he would get over there, so it makes sense to do it somewhere else. We’ll see.”
Guevara and Moloney are separated by just one spot in The Ring’s 115-pound rankings. The Mexican sits at number six, while the Australian is rated at seven.
“I’m really hopeful we can get this done before the end of the year, get this rematch and I can put it behind me,” said Moloney. “Otherwise, you think about what could have been forever.”
