WBO bantamweight world champion Jason Moloney will be the keenest of spectators when the world title double-header culminates this Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.  

The bantamweight division sees two world title fights take place when Junto Nakatani challenges Alexandro Santiago for the WBC title and Takuma Inoue defends his WBA bantamweight belt against Jerwin Ancajas in the Japanese capital. 

“I’m really looking forward to watching this card,” Moloney said in an exclusive interview. 

“Obviously the results of these fights have a big impact on the division and I definitely want to fight the winners. I’ll have my eyes glued to the TV on Saturday night and we are really keen to watch the fights. I think they will be good fights too. 

The 33-year-old Australian secured world glory with a wide points victory over Vincent Astrolabio last May in Stockton, California. He has looked for unification fights at every turn since and is expected to defend his title on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-George Kambosos Jr on May 12 in his native Australia. 

“It’s hard at the moment because I can’t say too much right now about my next fight, but the reason is because it is still a little bit up in the air,” Moloney confirmed. “I’m ready to go, I’m back in the gym and hoping to fight in May. I was pretty confident that I was going to be on the Kambosos-Lomachenko card, but Tony [Tolj] has been working hard. There are actually a few options on the table. I’ll let Tony take care of business at that end while I’m in the gym working hard. 

“I’ll be fighting in May. Where it is, and who I’m up against is to be determined. Might take a couple weeks to announce, but I’ll be fighting in May. I’m really looking forward to getting back in there and having another really big win and setting up a fight against the winners on the card this weekend. I’ll have to let it play out. I’m excited that this weekend is here and these guys are going to fight and we are going to have, I guess, a clear target of who we want to go after when we see who wins these fights.”

Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez occupies the fourth piece of the bantamweight picture. He claimed the vacant IBF belt with the widest of unanimous-decision victories over Melving Lopez last August in Oxon Hill, Maryland. 

Moloney lost a tight split-decision to Rodriguez in his first world title challenge in 2018 on the World Boxing Super Series.

“Rodriguez is always going to be at the top of my hit list.” Moloney added. “He’s fighting another Japanese guy, his mandatory. It went to purse bids, and Kameda Promotions won that bid, so that fight will also take place in Japan, but they haven’t named a date yet. I hope he wins and I hope I can fight him next. 

“It is just good that everyone has got their fights locked in and everyone is fighting. It’s important for me to be active. I got the fight out of the way in January, I’ll have the next one locked in hopefully this week coming. I’m looking forward to a busy year, definitely after this next one we will look for the unifications.”

Moloney (27-2, 19 KOs) made the first defense of his title with a majority-decision win over Saul Sanchez last month in Quebec City. The Canadian crowd were on their feet as Moloney and Sanchez produced an early Fight of the Year contender. 

“When you get two fighters from two foreign countries turning up you don’t usually get that type of atmosphere,” Moloney explained. “I think that you could tell that the people of Quebec were pretty big boxing fans. They really respected what they saw and enjoyed the fight, which was amazing. They certainly made the fight extra special with the atmosphere that they provided, they were going crazy throughout the whole fight.

“There were lots of momentum swings throughout the fight. We both had our moments, but it really drew the crowd into the fight. It was probably the best atmosphere I have been involved with. It was something pretty special.”