Gutsy Booth falls short in close fight with Molitor

11.09.10

Nottingham's gutsy Jason Booth almost wrestled the IBF title from Steve Molitor after a blazing start against the bigger but more pedestrian Canadian champion.

Showing terrific movement and trickery, 5'4" Booth darted in and around Molitor's shots, landed classy combinations of his own to befuddle the reigning champ, cutting him above the left eye with slashing shots.

Things began to swing in the champion's favour by the mid rounds, who began to impose his size advantage on the tiring Booth. Landing big shots to the body and eye catching left hooks, the Canadian banked the points.

Molitor began winging in his shots, especially in the last minute of each round, to snatch the rounds on the judge's cards.

By the 10th round, Molitor had pulled himself back into the fight. Both men then started to get into the trenches and by the final round, a tired clash of heads opened up cuts on both men.

116-113, 114-114 and 116-112 were the final scores, giving Molitor a majority decision victory.

"He didn't hit that hard, but he was fast and extremely creative in there tonight. What nobody knew though was that on Wednesday I was throwing up in the airport as I had a massive flu. But no excuses I thought this man fought his heart out tonight but thought I won easily down the stretch." Said Molitor afterwards.

"I thought it was a great fight and Jason Booth fought his heart out and has nothing to be ashamed of with that performance."

Afterwards Booth conceded that whilst the fight was close, he had no arguments with the result and admitted that somewhere mid fight, he suffered a hand problem and that the tally of Molitor's accurate body shots began to take the wind from his sails.

"He's a big lad and I could feel his strength as he came in and his extra power was stealing the rounds at the end." smiled Booth.

"But skillwise I gave him a lot of problems in there - and I know he (Molitor) enjoyed that fight. I'm proud of myself after that performance"

Rendall Munroe spoke from ringside with his thoughts, declaring that he was proud of Booth and that both men were warriors in there tonight.

"I said for a long time Jason has the ability to match him and I thought the only problem could be the strength (of Molitor) and thats what ended up the problem for him."

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