Carlos Molina bringing back 15-round fight after 30-year absence

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ex-world champ Carlos Molina bringing back 15-round fight after 30-year absence

King Carlos Promotions presents a throwback boxing event that brings a 15 round fight live for the first time since 1988, on November 6th in his home state of Michoacán, Mexico.

Promoter and fighter King Carlos Molina, the most active fighter in North America this year, is going for his 5th victory in 2020 in a closed-door event to be live-streamed on FITE, GSS Boxing and VIVE TV NETWORK (8 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT).

Promoter Carlos Molina has delivered on his promise of consistency to promote during the COVID era. He promoted the first event during the pandemic in North America and this will be his fourth closed-door event and has another show in December in the works.

“I am really excited about promoting and just like in my fights I bring a fighters mentality to promoting. I want to be the best in everything that I do,” says Molina.

“I loved watching those 15 round championship fights and I always dreamed of fighting 15 rounds. I was disappointed that I thought I would never get the chance to,” said Molina, “I’m excited for this fight but my goal like in every fight is to not let it go the distance, if it does I will be more than ready because I always like to challenge myself and push my body to the limit in training camp.”

Molina (34 -11- 2, 12 KOs), a former IBF junior middleweight titleholder, now campaigning in the middleweight division is coming off of five consecutive wins all under his own promotional banner, King Carlos Promotions. He last fought on September 12th and won against Hector Zepeda (19-1, 5 KO’s) via 6th round RTD.

During his career that began in October 2003, Molina has defeated Kermit Cintron, Ishe Smith, Cory Spinks, and Ed Paredes. He is best known for his highly-controversial draws against Erislandy Lara and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., both of which many media thought he did enough to win, and his disqualification loss to James Kirkland in a fight he was winning up until the point of the stoppage.

Molina will face resilient Mexican Juan Carlos Raygoza (17-15, 6 KOs), from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Raygoza is coming off of four straight wins and topped off with an upset victory against previously undefeated prospect from Kazakhstan, Dauren Yeleussinov (8-1, 7 KO’s), via 10 round SD on August 21st of this year and claimed the WBC International title.

“This is a great opportunity for me to fight a former world champion in King Carlos Molina. My goal is to capture a world title, this is the kind of fight that I have to win to get closer to a championship,” said Raygoza.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Correction: This fight is being billed as the first 15 round bout since 1988, however an astute reader pointed out that the last 15 rounder was actually fought on June 7, 1997 between Jose “Shibata” Flores and Eric Holland for a fringe middleweight title. Good catch!

Bout

[Enlightened-One]

I can't imagine 15-rounders ever making a permanent return to our TV screens.

I’m not sure if there’s any real justification for them to be reintroduced.

[watsupdoc87]

All world championship bouts should be 15 rounders

[Enlightened-One]

All world championship bouts should be 15 rounders

The main reasons why 15-round bouts stopped being used in boxing was due to safety concerns (resulting from the Duk Koo Kim fatality) and also due to TV scheduling.

I don't know if there's any real evidence that proves the longer duration makes fights more "exciting" to watch. Fighters are only human, they'll probably have to compete at a slower pace to remain effective for nine extra minutes.

It's easier for the TV networks to accommodate 12 round fights in their scheduling, because it conveniently fits a one-hour time slot, whereas a 15 rounder doesn't.

And let's face it, there's no reason to reintroduce 15 rounders if it doesn't result in the sports' governing bodies, the TV networks, the promoters or the fighters themselves earning more money.

Would more fans tune in to watch 15 rounders, especially if they were more likely to see fighters taking extra recovery rounds or perhaps the feeling out process taking longer to perform?

And if 15 round bouts really are better than 12, does that mean we should introduce 20 or 30 round contests, assuming the general rule asserts that longer fights are somehow more “superior”? Why stop at only 15 rounds?

[gilgamesh]

Kinda interesting for him to do this. Not sure what the goal is, but it's interesting. Who knows whether the bout will actually go the 15 or not.

[Perseus]

The goal is to draw some attention and viewers to the event.

At this point a fight scheduled for 15 rounds is a novelty and nothing more.
The days of 15 rounds being the norm are long gone and will stay that way.

[Onetimeonly]

Nobody wants a 15 Rd fight between a former champion and a journeyman. Molina isn't a puncher, that's dangerous. I doubt the guy lasts, but that's 15 potential minutes of punishment. Bad idea.