Booth & Munroe

Who has the tougher task

FADING? Molitor could be on the slide

In the entrace of the conference room above the Seaburn Centre in Sunderland, fans were greeted by the strange sight of Jason Booth going toe-to-toe, verbally of course, with a small telephone. This was the presser to promote Booth’s shot at IBF super-bantamweight champ Steve Molitor, the Canadian appearing via conference call. On the plus side, unless promoter Frank Maloney had hired an impressionist for the occasion, Molitor sounded confident and on target to defend his belt on September 11 in Houghton le Spring.

Molitor used the two fighters respective performances against Michael Hunter, the man Booth beat more recently but whom Steve crushed in the Hartlepool man’s prime, to illustrate his superiority.

“Jason beat him the same way I did,” Molitor intoned on a very clear line. “He broke him down, made him surrender. But I was the first one to do it.

“Jason will be a little more difficult as I will have to track him down.”

“He thinks I’m going to run,” laughed Booth later as he, and three other people – his manager and Maloney’s matchmaker Jimmy Gill, trainer Tony Harris and Maloney’s associate Mark – crammed, surely illegally, into Tony’s convertible (or droptop as the cool people term them).

He was 9st 5lbs, but ,was eating healthily and plentifully. A large fish dish went down well at the hotel and while Booth remained circumspect – as is his custom – there was real confidence radiating from his team that their man could get the job done. Fans having watched two rounds of Booth sparring hot prospect Carl Frampton as a vid on Jason’s phone, could see why.

Many certainly feel Booth has an easier task than his friend, sparmate and everyone’s favourite binman Rendall Munroe, who challenges Japan’s WBC champ at the weight, Toshiaki Nishioka, in Tokyo in October. As spectators found out at the Rainton Meadows Arena that night, Team Munroe do not concur.

“Molitor is not suddenly a bad fighter because he lost to [Celestino] Caballero,” Munroe’s trainer Jason Shinfield cautioned. “Maybe he’s on the slide a little but some could say that about Booth.

Despite the bravado, many feel Booth has more in his favour. He’s facing a gradually fading champion – NOT because he lost to Caballero but because he has not looked the same since that drubbing, and his second performance against Trust Ndlovu was not as good as his first. Look at it this way: Molitor is the title-holder and has never struggled to get home advantage before, yet is travelling to his opponent’s home country. Yes he is making a mint – as is Munroe would have been in Japan – but are his team cashing in while they can? That they turned down a Munroe fight but accepted Booth shows they may have underestimated Jason.

“Boothy said he’d move up a weight instead of fighting Rendall,” countered Shinfield. “That says it all.”