ESPN Deportes Quick Picks

Carlos Molina vs. Cornelius "K9" Bundrage: Boxing fans may have to do some detective work to find out what channel ESPN Deportes is on their cable provider but it will be worth it.  The reason for that is because Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO) will be in action and he happens to be one of the best five junior middleweights in the world.  Molina will be taking on the veteran Cornelius "K9" Bundrage (33-5, 19 KO) in a 12 round fight for Molina's IBF junior middleweight title.  Molina was originally supposed to defend his title against Jermall Charlo on the undercard of the Saul "Canleo" Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo PPV on March 8th.  However that fight was called off when Molina was arrested in Las Vegas over and outstanding warrent in Minnesota and deported to his native Mexico.  That means Molina may not fight in the U.S. for awhile which could hurt his career so he really needs to keep winning.  Molina isn't always fun to watch but he is very good at what he does.  While Molina doesn't have much power to speak of he is a very good defensive fighter.  The orthodox Molina has an impressive jab  along with a nice straight right hand.  He is also equally adept at fighting on the outside or from the pocket and in the pocket he does a good jab of landing clean uppercuts.  Bundrage is also an orthodox fighter with a good jab.  He also has a very strong straight right hand and much more power than Molina.  Defensively though Bundrage is not at the same level as Molina and he is far from his prime at 41 years old.  This fight shouldn't be too difficult for Molina as long as he doesn't show any ring rust.  Molina last fought in September of 2013 so Bundrage should look to jump on him early and really test him.  Molina is a very good defensive fighter however and should be able to weather the early storm and outbox Bundrage on his way to a unanimous decision victory.


Juan Pablo Sanchez vs. Rene Alvarado: If the main event of tonight's ESPN Deportes card doesn't bring fans to their feet in excitement the co-feature just might.  That fight will be between Juan Pablo Sanchez (29-11, 13 KO) and Rene Alvarado (20-3, 14 KO) and is scheduled to go 12 rounds in the junior lightweight division.  The reason this fight could be an exciting one is because Sanchez is a vulnerable fighter who has been knocked out eight times in his eleven losses.  Numbers can be deceiving in the case of Sanchez because most of his losses came very early in his career and he is on a seven fight winning streak albeit against lackluster competition.  Sanchez does have a solid left hook but he tends to really load up and throw it wildly.  He also has a nice right hand but he seems to get off balance when he throws a lot of his punches which would explain why he gets knocked out so often.  Alvarado is also an orthodox fighter and his footwork is much better than Sanchez's.  While his jab isn't great he does have a very good short right hand that could do very well against Sanchez.  While the left hook from Alvarado can tend to get wild he does do a nice job of landing it to the body on the inside and he also throws some solid uppercuts.  There should be some good back and forth action in this fight but it will be Alvarado who gets the better of it.  Alvarado is a boxer puncher and Sanchez has a glass jaw.  Alvarado should be able to rough Sanchez up and consistently find a home for his short right hand which will allow him to stop Sanchez in the 10th round.