Jason Moloney won his first professional world title overnight in California from Saturday to Sunday. In the bantamweight category, the Australian defeated Filipino Vincent Astrolabio by judges’ decision to take the vacant WBO belt. At 32, he now has 26 successes for only two defeats in fights for world titles in 2018 and 2020.
In the same evening, Kazakh Janibek Alimkhanuly retained his belt at middleweight. For his first defense, Alimkhanuly took the advantage in the second round over the Canadian Steven Butler with a left uppercut then several sequences dragging his opponent to the ground three times, before the referee stopped.
The winner then asked to be introduced in the future to American Jermall Charlo, the undefeated WBC middleweight champion, or Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the undisputed super-middleweight champion.