The third time was a charm for Jason Moloney.

A twenty-year dream was realized by the veteran bantamweight from Australia, who claimed the vacant WBO title with a twelve-round, majority decision win over Vincent Astrolabio. Judge Tom Carusone (114-114) had the bout even, overruled by judges Robert Hoyle (115-113) and Zachary Young (116-112) who scored for Moloney to give him a title win on his third try Saturday evening from Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.

The victory by Moloney filled a vacancy left behind by former undisputed bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, who abdicated the throne earlier this year.

Moloney used constant movement which disallowed Astrolabio to establish any type of offensive rhythm. Both boxers spent the early rounds of their ESPN-televised co-feature largely behind their respective jabs. Moloney got the better of that battle and often beat Astrolabio to the punch whenever either sought to initiate an exchange.

Astrolabio—who hails from General Santos City, Philippines but lives and trains in Las Vegas—stood directly in front of Moloney and ate a straight right midway through round two. The first-time title challenger responded with an uppercut to the chin and a hook to the body later in the frame.

The late round success carried over into round three. Moloney still sought to provide difficult angles but Astrolabio settled into a groove and was able to find a home for his right uppercut. Moloney took the shots well, though to a point as the increasing accuracy of the Filipino slowed his own offense.

Moloney moved side-to-side to make Astrolabio miss early in round four. The Australian contender responded with a left hook inside the first minute. Moloney worked his jab and utilized in-and-out movement to avoid Astrolabio’s right hand counters.

Astrolabio landed a right uppercut early in round five. He then followed with a counter left hook after Moloney overcommitted on a right hand. Action slowed midway through the round which prompted boos from the crowd. Moloney was unbothered by the feedback and continued to fight behind his jab and with constant movement. Astrolabio slipped a right hand but was out of position to respond in the closing seconds.

Moloney used subtle footwork to land a right hand down the middle. The shot forced Astrolabio to clinch a little more than a minute into round six. Moloney grew confident from the sequence and threw an uppercut and right hand. Neither hit the mark but he was able to work his way inside and land a right hand to the body.

Concern was raised in the Astrolabio corner after their charge fell behind through seven rounds. The first-time title challenger was asked how badly he wanted this opportunity, though the physical response was slow to develop. It finally came in the form of a right hand late in round eight, after Moloney outjabbed and outmaneuvered Astrolabio for much of the second half of the fight to that point.

Astrolabio continued to assert himself in round nine. Moloney constantly moved to Astrolabio’s right and threw his jab as part of a risk-averse approach. A similar approach was taken by both boxers in round ten. Astrolabio landed a right hand on a moving target in Moloney with a little more than one minute to go prior to the championship rounds.  

Moloney drew in Astrolabio and made him pay with a left hook to the body and another upstairs just before the midway point of round eleven. The moment was created as Astrolabio followed Moloney around the ring without landing anything of note.

Both boxers spilled to the canvas midway through the twelfth and final round, Moloney dusted himself off and spent the rest of the round avoiding any last-chance desperation shot by Astrolabio, who was never able to land the home run shot he needed to overcome the scorecard deficit.

Astrolabio snapped a six-fight win streak as his record fell to 18-4 (13KOs) in his first career title challenge. He was credited with throwing 133 more punches—596-to-464—but was significantly outlanded 143-to-109, as was reflected on the final scorecards.

Astrolabio arrived to this point with a sixth-round knockout of Nikolai Potapov in their IBF title eliminator last December. He instead opted to fight for the WBO belt, as did Moloney who was pulled from negotiations for a WBC title fight versus former four-division titlist Nonito Donaire to instead go this route.

Moloney came up short in his previous two title attempts. He dropped a narrow decision to Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez, who was the IBF bantamweight titlist in their October 2018 World Boxing Super Series opener between unbeaten boxers. A more lopsided defeat came in a seventh-round knockout to Inoue, who defended the WBA and IBF titles in their October 2020 clash in Las Vegas.

Four wins followed for Moloney to punch his way back into contention. The third time was the charm for the still top-rated bantamweight, who advanced to 26-2 (19KOs). With it comes the WBO bantamweight title, the second vacancy filled in the post-Inoue era of the division already in desperate need of a new leader.

Takuma Inoue, Naoya’s younger brother, claimed the vacant WBA title in a twelve-round points win over Liborio Solis on April 8 in Tokyo.

Moloney's long-sought title victory comes one week ahead of twin brother Andrew Moloney's vacant WBO junior bantamweight title fight versus Japan's Junto Nakatani. Their bout also airs on ESPN on a May 20 show preceding a three-fight ESPN Pay-Per-View headlined by the Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko undisputed lightweight championship. 

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox