Jason Moloney Takes Out Aston Palicte to Continue Win Streak
In this bantamweight duel, both fighters, Jason “Mayhem” Moloney (23-2, 18 KO’s) and Aston “Mighty” Palicte (28-4-1, 23 KO’s), found themselves in similar positions. Each was trying to restore equilibrium to their professional ledgers having suffered relatively recent losses. Molony was two bouts removed from his brutal knockout loss to Naoya Inoue on October 31, 2020.
Since then, Mayhem pieced together back-to-back unanimous decision wins over a stagnant Joshua Greer Jr and a substandard Francisco Portillo. Portillo has only beaten one fighter with a winning record in his entire career. That singular phenomenon came against David Godinez, who was 1-0, 1 KO, well back in 2014. Moloney faced Greer Jr coming off a loss then a draw. Putting his own loss and paltry competition to the side, Moloney still strode into this match the favorable standings of #2 (WBC) #3 (WBO), #9 (WBA) and #12 (IBF).
THE ROAD TO CHANGE OR MORE LOSS?
As for Palicte, he’s made history but not in the way that he wanted. This is because it was his scalp being collected that allowed Kazuto Ioka to become the first Japanese fighter to win a world title in four separate divisions. Mighty followed that tenth round stoppage loss with a unanimous decision defeat to Renz Rosia. Like Moloney, Palicte has toppled three nondescript opponents in preparation for this showdown.
Prior to his losses to Ioka and Rosia however, Palicte had established himself as a competent fighter with slept on hand speed and crafty combination punching. This is why Mighty entered the bout ranked #6 (IBF) and #14 (WBO).
FAST AND FURIOUS
While neither fighter was inherently reckless, there was no traditional feel-out period before the two started pitching hard shots. This made the first round a lively one where both scored regularly but neither truly hurt the other. Moloney showed a dedication to body work whereas Palicte was chasing a left uppercut with vigor. The second and most of the third closely mirrored the first, which continued to see Mayhem move well and dig out the Mighty’s guts with consistent shots downstairs.
The match shifted dramatically in the final minute of the third when Moloney popped and dropped Palicte with an extremely short and potent straight right. He would mount his feet after sloppily spilling onto the canvas but it was clear that his legs had already hit the showers in the locker room. With this being the case, Mayhem was able to put him down again with a general barrage of punches seconds later. Despite nothing of real note connecting, Palicte went down again at which point the match was called off. This was a great win for Moloney who is no doubt thinking about a title shot.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Bakari Simpson
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