On Saturday night, Jason Moloney and Saul Sanchez threw down in an early candidate for Fight of The Year. At the conclusion of twelve heated, back-and-forth rounds, Moloney edged home by majority decision at the Videotron Centre, Quebec City, Canada.

Moloney, The Ring’s No. 1-rated bantamweight, is rightful proud of his effort in defending his WBO title for this first time.

“It was a brutal night in the office, definitely feeling it today, sorest I’ve ever pulled up from a fight,” Moloney told The Ring at Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport on Sunday. “Being a big boxing fan, you grow up watching the amazing fights that everyone remembers – the wars. The Gatti-Ward, Barrera-Morales, these sort of epic fights that everyone remembers.

“As a fighter you want to be involved in these special fights. I’m not saying that this fight was up against those but it was a fight a fight everyone seemed to enjoy. I know the crowd certainly enjoyed it, and as a fighter it makes you proud to be involved in fights people want to watch and fights people enjoy. It’s great to be involved in a brutal, exciting fight and great to come out on top and still be world champion.”

The fight had several shifts in momentum throughout but a late round rally from the defending champion helped him keep his crown.

“He spoke in the press conference a couple of days before the fight thinking I was overlooking him. I guess some people once you become champion think you might lose hunger because you’ve achieved the goal you’ve set out to achieve for your whole career. I have not lost one ounce of hunger, I’m as hungry and determined now being champion as I’ve ever been. I felt like that was the difference,” he said. “I felt like I started a little slow, I definitely thought he won the first, the first four rounds were close.

“Going into the fight, I thought I’d outbox him a little easier, I thought I’d have him covered out long. I thought he was pretty slow on his feet and he’d have to plant to punch but I wasn’t having success early, my timing was a bit off, my jab wasn’t landing like it normally would. I had to use my experience and change plans and dig in and go to plan B and go to war with him, which obviously made for a more exciting fight, a more brutal fight. And I took more punches than I normally would and landed more punches I normally would. It made for a great fight for the fans. I had to dig deep and change plans on the fly and show how bad I want it.

“He was very strong and determined, as well. There was different momentum swings throughout the fight. Going into the championship rounds, something we always talk about in the gym with [Trainer] Angelo [Hyder] being fitter than the opponents, how hard we train, the sacrifice we make. The championship rounds have always got to be ours and as you saw on the judges scorecards, the championship rounds were the difference. I showed how hard I wanted it, how hard I train and the hard work pays off when you’re able to come home strong.”

The next day at the airport both fighters’ paths crossed again, but this time it was friendly fire as they exchanged handshakes and took a photo together.

Jason Moloney and Saul Sanchez greet each other at the airport after last night’s epic 12-round war. Got to love the respect #MoloneySanchez @JasonMoloney1 @TonyTolj @trboxing @KornerMan44 @manny_boxing #boxing 🇦🇺🥊🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7oxdhbgfia

— Anson Wainwright (@AnsonWainwright) January 14, 2024

It is this kind of respect that we all love to see. Beat the heck out of each other for twelve rounds and then come together and express your admiration for one another.

“That’s the way I think it should always be, I’m not much of a trash talker, I’ve always got respect for the opponents, its never anything personal for me,” he explained. “He was coming in the ring to try to take away everything I’ve ever worked for, but of course he’s just going after his own goals and dreams, we’re all in this sport to be the best we can be. After the fight’s done, we both gave it everything we had and the judges make the decision and you take whatever it is.

“I think there should always be respect there, that’s what I love about this sport. We beat the hell out each other last night, probably left parts of ourselves in the ring. There’s respect the next day, I wish him well for the rest of his career. I’m sure his time will come. For me, I had a similar situation in my first world title fight against (IBF titleholder Emmanuel) Rodriguez, where I thought I won but I lost a split decision and kept coming back and getting better.”

Moloney, his twin Andrew, their manager, Tony Tolj plus other members headed to Hawaii to enjoy some much deserved R&R.

“I didn’t get to celebrate with the team after I won the world title because we quickly went to Las Vegas when Andrew fought for the world title,” he said. “We thought this time it would be nice to actually have a few days as a team, obviously we’ve been away for a month but it’s different when you’re in training camp, so to have a few days together as a team, unwind, celebrate, relax, let the hair down a bit.

“With all the stiches and the nick I’m in I don’t know if I’ll be able to relax and unwind the way we hoped but I’m sure we’ll still have some fun, have some laughs and have some good times together. I love these guys, they’re like family and it’s great to actually have these memories away from boxing.”

With the @WorldBoxingOrg Champ in Hawaii 🌴@JasonMoloney1 @trboxeo @trboxing pic.twitter.com/7UZhKwGmlO

— Tony Tolj 🇭🇲🇭🇷🇲🇰 (@TonyTolj) January 16, 2024

After a week on the tropical Island it’ll soon be time to return home. Then Moloney intends to get back in the gym with a clear plan to fight back in Australia in May.

“I’ll leave that up to Tony but we’re obviously hopeful the May fight that everyone talks about with Lomachenko and Kambosos comes off and it’s in Australia,” he said. “I think May works well, I’ll obviously have a week to rest up and get back in the gym. If May works well I want to have an active year, so the most exciting, biggest and best fight for that May card. I’d love a unification but I’ll leave that up to Tony and Top Rank to see what they can deliver. I’ll just get in the gym and work hard and get ready for another exciting fight.”

Tolj is ready to take in the moment on their vacation before getting back to work.

“The next part is getting to Hawaii and having a pizza and nice piña colada and chilling. We’ll assess after that,” said the venerable manager. “We’re looking for a big active year and proving why he is the best bantamweight on the planet.”

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

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