Andrew Moloney predicts winner of Kosei Tanaka vs. Christian Bacasegua title fight

Andrew Moloney predicted that Kosei Tanaka will defeat Christian Bacasegua for the WBO super flyweight title on Saturday.

Australia’s Moloney is set to fight whoever emerges victorious on May 12, on the undercard of Vasyl Lomachenko vs. George Kambosos Jr. (live on ESPN in the US).

Speaking to BoxingScene.com, Moloney said: “I believe Tanaka will definitely win the fight.

“I’m sitting at number three – once those two fight, I’ll then move into the number-one spot. It’s likely I’ll fight Tanaka unless there is some freak accident. 

“I watched some footage of Rangel because we were locked in to fight him last December. At the time he was rated number three – after I watched the footage I couldn’t believe he was ranked so highly. He hasn’t fought anyone really at the top sort of level and just doesn’t seem to be a world-class fighter. He’s somehow fallen into fighting for a vacant world title, but he’s nowhere near that level. I think that Tanaka will get through to him quickly.”

He continued: “We do have to wait until what happens on Saturday night [also shown live on ESPN+ in the US].

“I do know that Top Rank have talked to Honda about the possibility of Tanaka fighting me in 11 weeks time on May 12 on the Kambosos-Vasiliy Lomachenko card in Perth in Australia. 

“If they can pull that off, if Top Rank can make that happen, I’ll be the happiest man in the world. Let’s hope they can get that done. Conversations have started, but we obviously have to wait until Saturday night is out of the way.”

Moloney is not worried about a short turnaround.

“I’m confident Tanaka will win quite easily,” he explained. “There should be no problem to turn it around in 11 weeks – it’s just whether or not he is happy to come out to Australia. There would be positives for him there too – he’s obviously a big name in Japan, but he hasn’t been seen that much in terms of a worldwide audience. A lot of people will be watching Lomachenko-Kambosos all over the world.

“I hope we can get it over the line and get him out here. I’m just itching for Saturday to be out of the way so we can start these negotiations. I hope we can make it happen, but if we can’t I just want to be next in line for Tanaka. Hopefully that mandatory will be due soon – it has been over two years since a mandatory has been fought.”

Live on DAZN: Haney vs. Garcia on April 20. Click here.