Andrew Moloney is confident that he will beat Phumelele Cafu and Kosei Tanaka if they get a shot

Few people were as disappointed as Andrew Moloney when Kosei Tanaka lost his WBO super flyweight title to Phumelele Cafu at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on Monday night.

The Australian veteran, 33, had hoped to give Tanaka a shot at the lucrative Japanese market.

Those dreams were dashed when South African Cafu put on the fight of his life, knocking out Tanaka in the fifth round and ending the fight with a split decision victory over the fourweight world champion.

“The plan was to target the WBO and chase the Tanaka fight, but that all fell apart on Monday night,” Moloney (26-4-1NC, 16 KOs) told The Ring. “I think the WBO is probably still the way to go, but I’m not sure if they have a rematch clause and if Tanaka will take it. But after watching last night’s fight I would have real confidence in facing any of those guys and coming out victorious. That is the way we would like to go.

“I would have liked to fight Tanaka in Japan, who is also a four-division world champion. He’s definitely someone I’ve looked up to and wanted to fight for a long time now.

“It was hard to watch last night. The way he did, I’m more confident than ever that I have what it takes to beat Tanaka.

“I think they will have a rematch and hopefully Tanaka will get that belt and I can get back in the ring and rise to those levels and maybe that fight will continue down the season.”

Tanaka stepped into Moloney’s footsteps four years ago when he debuted at 115-pounds. At the beginning of the year it looked like they were on top, with Moloney ranked number one in the WBO. But when an offer was made to fight the vacant IBF lightweight title between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr in Perth, Western Australia in May, Moloney felt he couldn’t turn it down.

That decision ended in disaster. Moloney was paired with Carlos Cuadras, who retired from boxing with a ruptured Achilles, and was replaced by Pedro Guevara. Moloney entered the fight with a torn biceps and was severely limited in one-handed boxing, limiting his takedowns.

Still, Moloney felt he did more than enough to win and was shocked when Guevara was declared the winner by split decision. He was very disappointed and announced that he was leaving the ring shortly after the fight but withdrew days later.

It was a time of sliding doors in his career.

“Looking back is a good thing, but watching the Tanaka-Cafu fight made me think that maybe I would have done things if I could have turned back the clock a little bit,” explained Moloney.

“I was ranked number one in the WBO before my last fight and I gave up my chances to wait for the Tanaka fight. But the opportunity to fight in Australia on a main card against Guevara for the interim WBC title came up and to be honest, I was just excited about Tanaka’s fight hanging around, but in the end we decided to stay busy again. to take that chance to fight in Australia.

“Even with the injury going into the fight, it was another thing that I put in my mind, do I have surgery and take the first place and wait for Tanaka, but I decided to go to Guevara’s fight. Looking back now, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. And watching the way Tanaka fought last night made me think maybe I should have waited. I really hope I could have beaten Tanaka and taken that belt off him.

“So I’m kicking myself a little bit, but unfortunately you can’t go back.”

It’s been a frustrating year for Moloney, but he’s continued to be animated in the gym as his team works to find him his next fight. The window of opportunity to fight again this year is closing fast, but he still hopes to return to the ring in December, possibly in his home country of Australia.

“I really hope so,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been working on. I’ve been in the gym training hard for a while now, a good few months. I hope to be out before the end of the year.

“For now, it will have to be December. I’m trying hard to find something locked in, but no luck yet. I’m still training away as if the fight will be in December and I have a team working on that at the moment and fingers crossed, we can get over the line.

“I hope we can get out before the end of the year and get back into the winner’s circle and start climbing those levels again.”

Moloney, who campaigned as a bantamweight for the first three years of his professional career before dropping down to super flyweight, surprisingly said he would even consider moving down another weight class to get the right opportunity.

“It’s a tough time in the super flyweight division,” said Moloney, The Ring’s No.8 contender at 115 kilograms. “There is a lot going on and it is always difficult to plan which route to take as things change so quickly. I was tipping Bam Rodriguez to beat Guevara, then talk of Kazuto Ioka and Fernando Martinez apparently having a rematch on New Year’s Eve. Then there is talk of Bam, if successful, fighting the winner of that match at the unification. The WBO looks like the fastest way to take the title to me, so that’s the way we’re going to go.

“We have been rejecting the idea that maybe we will go to flyweight and find a climb there. Japan has a little scene going on there at the moment, but that’s still up in the air. Maybe I can get comfortable at super flyweight, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens with Cafu and Tanaka, but like I said, I can get comfortable and confident if I face one of them, so hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.”