by Tamas Pradarics

Former WBA regular lightweight titleholder Paulus Moses still has his most recent foe, Ray Beltran in his target. On February 16th, the Namibian challenger lost by competitive twelve round decision for the vacant WBO 135-pound belt to the Mexican-American in Reno, Nevada.

Moses (40-4, 25 KOs) gave a tougher-than-expected fight to the younger Beltran, who was awarded the victory at the end alongside the vacant World Boxing Organization belt. Despite it being a close, two-way action battle, judges scored it pretty wide at 116-112 and 117-111 twice for Beltran, who, with the win, most likely secured his and his family’s permanent green card in the USA.

Team Moses has stated they think the judges clearly favored the A-side of the matchup in Beltran and would love to secure a rematch with fair scoring anytime.

“Now that Beltran has his world title belt, we can now forget about his visa and have a real fight. Hopefully, the judges can score the fight for what it is, however, we do not plan to leave it to the judges in a rematch,” said Moses’s promoter, Nestor Tobias to BoxingScene.com.

“There are only a few rematches that make sense in the boxing world, and this is one of them. Beltran must come out and prove that he is a real champion because this time around there will be no judges and media getting him out of this. We will make sure he gets the beating of his life this time.”

It seemed Beltran could get a WBA/WBO unification bout against his Top Rank teammate and P4P shot-listed Vasiliy Lomachenko, who is coming out of a huge 10th round TKO win over Jorge Linares. The Ukrainian wunderkind, however, suffered a shoulder injury and underwent surgery that put him on the sideline until at least the end of this year.

That left Beltran without an opponent for his ring return, a spot Team Moses would love to fill-in.

“Moses is ever ready for a rematch against Beltran because of he too just like so many fans around the world was very disappointed with the judges’ decision,” stated the Namibian businessman.

“Moses is blessed with a young heart and moves like a 20-year-old, age is nothing but a number when it comes to Moses. We dare Beltran and his handlers to agree to a rematch, this time he will not only be bruised but totally defeated. Moses can take him on anytime. I am sure he has had enough time to recover after that brutal fight, we challenge him to come and fight Moses again.”

Moses, who currently stands No. 9 by the WBO at lightweight, has learned from that experience and plans to make things easier regarding a second fight.

“It is simple, I will be my own judge, I will knock him out and declare myself the winner,” said the Namibian pugilist to BoxingScene.com.

And what if Beltran placed himself out of a potential rematch? Well, Moses, who turned forty years old on Monday, has other plans to be able to finish what is left of his pro run with taking on the biggest challenges in his class.

“I have been blessed with a successful boxing career. I had an outstanding appointment with Beltran, but I can promise you he would probably never want to step in the ring with me again. I would love to take on Mikey Garcia, I think he is another one I can beat and finish off. At this point in my career, I don’t want to play around with mere prospects but fight the best of the best.”

You can reach Tamas Pradarics at pradaricst@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TomiPradarics.