Andrew Moloney cannot wait for his upcoming third fight against Joshua Franco, scheduled for nine months to the day from when Moloney settled for what he considers a nonsensical no-contest in their rematch.

The former WBA world super flyweight champion, who will face Franco again August 14, still hasn’t seen any evidence of the accidental clash of heads that supposedly caused severe swelling surrounding Franco’s right eye. Referee Russell Mora determined that an unintentional head-butt in the first round, not one of Moloney’s punches, created the damage that prevented Franco from continuing after the second round of their 12-round rematch November 14 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.

An excessively long replay review at ringside caused controversy that night as well. Robert Byrd, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s replay official, and NSAC executive director Bob Bennett took more than four times longer than the entire fight lasted to examine ESPN’s footage of the first round.

If Mora had ruled that one of Moloney’s punches left Franco’s eye swollen shut or the NSAC overturned his call based on the replay, Moloney would’ve won by technical knockout. Instead, Franco retained the WBA secondary championship he narrowly won when he beat Moloney by unanimous decision in his previous fight.

“I’ve still got no idea how that happened,” Moloney told BoxingScene.com. “From everyone watching on TV, to watching the fight back maybe 50 times, there’s just no way that there was a head clash. And I know that Franco knows that himself. I’m sure the last eight or nine months he’s been looking himself in the mirror, and he knows that he shouldn’t be the champion at the moment. I’ve got no idea how they got that call wrong. I think the only possible explanation is that they were trying to save the referee from, you know, being shown that he made the wrong call.

“But that’s why the instant replay is there, is to fix mistakes when they happen. And they chose not to do that and made a joke of the whole situation. But that’s in the past now. I’ve used that as motivation the past eight or nine months. That result has been in my head every single day and that’s pushed me to work hard every single day in the gym and improve as much as possible, and to train hard and make sure that I win this fight.”

San Antonio’s Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs, 1 NC) and Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC), of Kingscliff, Australia, will headline a tripleheader ESPN will air August 14 from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Junior welterweights Arnold Barboza Jr. (25-0, 10 KOs), of South El Monte, California, and Antonio Moran (26-4-1, 19 KOs), of Mexico City, are scheduled to meet in the 10-round co-feature that night. In the 10-round opener of ESPN’s three-bout broadcast, bantamweight contender Jason Moloney (21-2, 18 KOs), Andrew’s twin brother, is set to square off against Chicago’s Joshua Greer Jr. (22-2-2, 12 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.