Imam-Molina fight announced for Wilder-Fury 2

We have the first preliminary fight announced, and it’s a good one for the Deontay Wilder–Tyson Fury 2 card taking place on February 22nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

That matchup was first reported by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic and confirmed with Big Fight Weekend a little later Tuesday night is a contest between Amir Imam and Javier Molina. The bout will be scheduled for ten rounds at the catchweight of 142 pounds and will take place on prelims that will be aired on both ESPN and FOX leading into the pay-per-view.

Sources: Amir Imam and Javier Molina have agreed to terms on a 10-round bout on the #WilderFury2 preliminary undercard simulcast on ESPN/FOX platforms. Imam, a former title challenger, will step up in a fight contested at 142 pounds. Molina, an Olympian, coming off KO 1 of Okada

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 8, 2020

Imam (22-2,19 KOs) was slated to be in action on the January 18th card for Top Rank card in Verona, NY, headlined by Michael Seals vs. Eleider Alvarez, but when you get a chance to appear on this card of this magnitude,  you jump at it.

Imam is coming off a victory in his debut since signing with Top Rank, a knockout win of Marcos Mojica in the fourth round in November of last year.

Molina (21-2, 9 KOs) is coming off a November 2nd victory where he dropped Hiroki Okada in the first round, which everyone got to see in the co-main event on ESPN when a fight with Jerwin Ancajas was scrapped due to visa issues. The former Olympian has been in action since 2007 when he won the U.S. National Championships, as an amateur at seventeen years old.

We’ll, of course, get more of the undercard coming as time goes on, but the format will be “one for Top Rank Boxing, then one for Premier Boxing Champions.” in terms of fight matchups.

Any other idea of the sides joining forces was pretty much a killed rumor once PBC announced last week that Adam Kownacki would headline a show in March at the Barclays Center. That fight nixed all speculation of a potential matchup between Kownacki and IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.