Steve Molitor - "I'm a different fighter now"

Paul Foley sees a healthy and hungry Steve Molitor...

Canadian IBF super-bantamweight champion Steve Molitor arrived in England yesterday ahead of his title fight against Jason Booth in Sunderland on September 11th.

The two men finally came together at London’s Russell Hotel when Steve landed late after jetting in from Canada almost an hour later than the scheduled press conference time.

Booth, dressed casually in trainers and jeans, kept himself busy by chatting with reporters and with what he describes as doodling with pen and paper in hand and was in good spirits smiling and joking, but slightly anxious to get the action on.

I arrived keen to size up Molitor for myself after reading a Canadian newspaper report that gave me the impression he was fed up with boxing and was ready for the taking. His home country paper quoted him as saying “The sport has taken a lot out of me, I’m 30 years old. I’ve been boxing for 20 years, but not 20 years like everyone else.

“I’ve been working my ass off for twenty years,” he continued. “I don’t train like regular boxers, I train way harder than anybody. (I’m pretty sure James DeGale’s trainer Jim McDonnell would disagree!)

“So it’s been a hard 20 years, I’m not beaten down but mentally and physically it gets draining.” The reporter claimed Molitor seemed more emotional than usual and that he appeared to be on the verge of tears.

Sometimes we can greatly misinterpret even quotes like these and read things that are not what they seem as Molitor added “My life is ruined forever, my hands will never be the same, my thought process will never be the same. My family suffered because of the lifestyle I had to live, my life’s over to me. It’s not fair but it’s what I choose.”

As I sat chatting with Booth’s trainer Tony Harris and shared with him these comments he began smiling like a Cheshire cat and who can blame him after hearing a champion who doesn’t sound as though ‘he wants it anymore.’

Before reading Molitor’s quotes I was tipping him to have a bit too much for the likeable Booth, but my mind was now swiftly changing towards Booth. It wasn’t too long before I reverted back to my original forecast of a Molitor victory after getting a close up view of a fighter who some have described as being past his sell by date.

I’m glad that I attended to see the man himself rather than ‘rely’ on supposed experts’ judgments. It is all too easy for a journalist to be lazy in this high-paced computer world. A few clicks to various news sources and a report can be compiled but it can NEVER compare to ‘being there’ and seeing things for yourself.

Molitor entered the room dressed in a slick red tracksuit sporting ‘Team Molitor’ on his back and immediately shook hands with Booth. The IBF champion was intensely focused and not in the mood to dwell on his devastating defeat to Celestino Caballero in 2008, the fight that is said to have emptied him.

“It was a long time ago. I learned a lot, I’m a different fighter now. I live a better lifestyle now.”

Molitor looks far from finished to me. His tanned skin looks like an advert for a health farm something which he puts down to a diet of organic food. Despite being written off in terms of an elite fighter I asked him if he is still at his best to which he replied, “100 per cent, mentally, physically everything. It doesn’t matter how many times you go the gym it matters what you do.”

Just before leaving Sky’s Ed Robinson told him, “I know you don’t want to hear it but Booth is a really nice guy.”

Steve replied abruptly “It don’t mean s*** to me.”

He appears to be a man determined on inflicting serious damage on Booth.

While my heart still says Booth my head now firmly says Molitor.