MONSTER OPPORTUNITY
AN unabating wind pummels Jason Moloney to the head and body. The Australian bantamweight contender stiffens his torso, squints his eyes and takes a long, deep breath as he runs along the desolate awakening beaches in Kingscliff, Australia.
It’s 7am, halfway across the world, and Moloney counters this attack from Mother Nature easily and instinctively: Laser focus sees him over another imaginary finish line, another morning run completed. More miles in the bank and the 118-pounder answers the phone with a warm, infectious smile that I’ve grown to cherish over a year of intermittent contact. Calmness ensues, and just like that, he’s recharged, ready, and reactive.
“I’ve never been scared of monsters, not even as a child,” Jason Moloney tells Boxing News ahead of his October 31 world title fight against Naoya Inoue. Two pieces of the bantamweight title will be on the line inside Top Rank’s Las Vegas Bubble; Moloney is attempting to join an illustrious group of Australian fighters to haven broken Japanese fighting hearts.
“I don’t fear any man,” he adds. “And definitely not Inoue. I think that’s what surprises a lot
