Laredo native Nicholas Molina will look to bounce back from his first career blemish and will get to do so on boxing's biggest stage. Molina, whose record stands at 4-1-1 (3), dropped a split decision to Rio Grande Valley native Eduardo Guerra at the Payne Arena last December. The loss didn't keep the Gateway city naive down for long. He will now square off with undefeated prospect Daniel Blancas on the undercard of Caleb Plant VS David Benavidez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A massive opportunity for the 22-year-old Molina, an opportunity that he fully understands the magnitude of "It's a blessing, it's a huge blessing, I'm super grateful. For my hometown, I'm very happy, and I'm grateful. It's the biggest opportunity I have ever gotten in my life. It means the world to me to be able to show my talent, and show the world who I am and show what happened in the past, is in the past, and how I can move forward and overcome obstacles." Molina explained. Luey Villarreal, trainer and owner of Ferocious Fitness Boxing Gym in San Antonio, where Molina trains, doubled down on the youngster's motivation and said of Molina, "He came back to the gym dedicated and motivated. He's working harder than ever, and I appreciate that."
Molina turned pro in his home city back in April of 2019 and ran his record to 3-0 before the pandemic started. He came back after a 16-month layoff, jumped up two weight classes, shook off the rust, and scored a second-round knockout on short notice to move his record to 4-0. That's when Molina relocated to San Antonio to train.
The lone career loss in Molina's career has not kept him down for long. He actually describes it as a blessing in disguise "I know I could have changed the outcome easily, but ever since then, I have been getting a lot of calls, call after call, to fight in New York and California and different places where I wasn't getting calls before... It is a blessing in disguise... It's just a loss. I'm not going to keep dwelling on it. It's not over yet. I still have a long way to go... I needed it [the loss] to change my whole mindset."
Molina, for the first time, will enter the ring as an underdog. A new role that the 22-year-old accepts and expects to thrive in. He has actually always viewed himself as the underdog and has approached all of his fights with that mentality. The Laredoan explained, "My whole career, I have felt like the underdog, people didn't really see me, and I was worth more. You always have to have the underdog mentality. I just need to be focused and be ready."
Molina will certainly be taking the biggest challenge of his professional career when he steps into the ring on March 25th with Blancas. A win at the MGM grand on that Pay-Per-View card will put the kid from Laredo on a fast track to becoming the next world champion from Laredo, a city that is home to two former world champs, the legendary Canizales brothers, Orlando and Gaby.
"It's everybody's dream to have that belt around their waist." Molina explained when asked about potentially joining them, "I think it would be a blessing to my family and everyone who has been around me since day one. I have been through a lot in my life, ups and downs, but that would be the top of the mountain."