Twins’ fairytale boxing dream ‘20 years in making’
They arrived in this world together, learned to walk and talk together, started and finished school together, left home together, got stuck into boxing together.
A 20-year dream comes down to one night in Vegas.
“This is what we’ve always envisioned,” Andrew Moloney says before he climbs into the MGM Grand Garden Arena’s hallowed ring on Sunday (AEST) in pursuit of the WBO junior bantamweight title – just one week after his identical twin Jason claimed the WBO bantamweight belt.
“It’s what we’ve always wanted. It feels like it’s meant to be. It feels like this is our story,” he said.
“It’s unfolding how we’ve always imagined it. Identical twins, identical records, fighting for WBO tiles in the same week. It feels like destiny. It feels like this is what I’m supposed to do. Finish the fairytale. I’m so bloody proud of Jason, you know? I want him to be just as proud of me.”
They arrived in this world together, learned to walk and talk together, started and finished school together, left home together, got stuck into boxing together.
Andrew was in Jason’s corner for the stunning victory over Filipino brawler Vincent Astrolabio across the desert and over the hills at Stockton, northern California. He got emotional, he got pumped, he’s got no illusions about where their extraordinary double now rests. On him.
“I’m aware of what’s at stake,” he says. “Everything. This dream of ours, to be world champions at the same time, has been 20 years in the making. Twenty years of blood, sweat and tears. I know it all comes down to me. I’ll be giving everything I have and more to make sure I walk out of the ring with the belt. All our lives, we’ve done everything together. We can write the movie when this is done. It could be perfect. It could be so special. I’ve got to be world champion with him. It’s only right. I’m the difference between us making it and not making it.”
Flick through the family album. Look at the cheeky little buggers. They started fighting together. By fighting each other.
“We’ve always been best mates,” Andrew says. “We always had the same friendship groups and done the same things but there’s always been that competitiveness between us, trying to outdo each other in everything. That’s why we had so many fights growing up. We’d punch on in the backyard then as soon as we were done with that, we’d be like, ‘should we go and kick the footy?’
“We never held grudges. Everything was always put behind us. Even though we’ve fought so much, we really have been the very best of mates.”
Every decent boxer has a nickname. Jason’s ‘Mayhem’. Andrew’s ‘The Monster’.
Looks like they’ve always run amok. Photos of them in nappies. Photos of them in a bath as toddlers. Photos of them riding the same beginner’s tricycle. Photos of them on a slide grinning behind their eighth birthday cake. Photos of them as mischievous teenagers holding certificates. Of them having a world title telephone call. A photo of them last week at Stockton.
‘Mayhem’ with a world title belt. The Monster waiting for his.
Who won the childhood punch-ons? “I was undefeated in the backyard,” Andrew says. “He would say the e same thing, but he’d be lying. We fought over anything and everything. When we were 15 or so, Dad was building the family home. Upstairs were our bedrooms but Dad put in separate bathrooms so when we were getting ready for school, we didn’t have to go near each other. Every day before school, there had been punch-ons, so separate bathrooms was all Dad could think of to get some peace. Ancient history now. It’s up to me to leave absolutely everything I have in that ring on Saturday night so we can both come home as world champions. Jason’s lived up to his end of the bargain. I’ve got to live up to mine. Expect fireworks.”
Jason is the elder Bruise Brother by a minute. He’ll be in Andrew’s corner when the bell goes ding, ding, ding against Japan’s undefeated southpaw Junto Nakatini. Right now there’s a ring in the middle of the floor at the MGM Grand – as in, right smack-bang in the middle of all the poor souls doing their arses on the pokies, blackjack tables, roulette wheels and every other machine zinging and stealing everyone’s loot, and Jason is watching Andrew do an open session.
“He’ll be checking on how I’m feeling this week,” Andrew says. “He’s been at training all week. He always helps. We’ve fought multiple times on the same night and that’s pretty stressful. This is ideal. His fight is out of the way and he’ll be in my corner. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows the game plan for the fight. He has a very good boxing brain – he’s a world champion – and his advice is going to be invaluable. It’ll be like having a second coach.”
Jason’s hand is in a cast. It may not be broken as first thought, he’s getting more scans, but it’s severely swollen and hurts like hell. He hasn’t really celebrated his triumph. The hospital he went to after his triumph was “the slowest hospital in the world” and he didn’t get out of there until 2am. By which time and Andrew and everyone else had gone to bed. He’s won his world title, he’s in Vegas, the party town to top all party towns, but he’s staying on the straight and narrow in the hope there’s a double celebration on Saturday night.
“This the absolute dream for us,” he says. “If you can write a script for a movie on your career, this is the perfect story. You couldn’t have the stars align any better. We have the chance of becoming world champions one week apart. This is it, the opportunity for both of us to get the job done and write an incredible fairytale. I achieved my dream and I’m on top of the world but I won’t celebrate until Andrew wins a world title.”
Twenty years of blood. Twenty years of sweat. Twenty years of tears. They’re gentlemen boxers. Nobody’s calling nobody a bum. “We’ve never been much for trash talking,” Andrew says. “Nakatini can box. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. There’s no bagging people but we’re confident in our abilities and we’re certainly not willing to let anyone get in the way of us achieving the dream. We’ve dedicated our lives to this sport for 20 years. It’s a sport at the end of the day and trash talking isn’t for us. But don’t get the wrong idea. It’s also the way we provide forline-upamilies. I know winning this fight can change my family’s life. There’s a lot riding on it. We’ve had a 20-year rollercoaster of highs and lows and we’ve made a lot of sacrifices and I feel like this moment is a chance to make it all worthwhile.”
It’s a blockbuster night. Perhaps the best lineup of stinks all year. The slick dude running the workout sessions says: “There’s nothing more exciting than fight night in Vegas! And this is the fight night of all fight nights this year.” The headline act is Sin City’s own Devin Haney, who took all the lightweight belts from Australia’s George Kambosos Jr last year, against Ukraine’s two-time Olympic champion Vasiliy Lomachenko for the undisputed world title. Nico Ali Walsh, grandson of Muhammad, will make a middleweight appearance against Danny Rosenberger. He’ll again box to the chant of, “Ali, Ali!” He has umpteen butterfly tattoos (no stinging bees) and claims the attention doesn’t faze him.
“Since my grandfather fought, every boxer in the world has been compared to the greatest in history,” he says near the pokies. “It’s not pressure. If anything, I’m humbled by it.”
A victory for Andrew will be worth millions to the Bruise Brothers. Top Rank’s Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum will give them top billing in a multimillion dollar card in Australia … if Andrew wins. The younger brother is about to leave Vegas like everyone else does. Either completely destroyed, mentally or physically, full of regrets. Or over the moon. “I just can’t afford to lose,” he says.
“We may not get this opportunity ever again so I need to grab it with both hands. I’m focused, I know what needs to be done, I’ve got a great game plan and I’ve worked bloody hard. I’m prepared in mind and body to go 12 rounds because I know it’s going to be a tough fight. The hardest fight I’ve ever had. Twelve rounds is a long time when both fighters want to win this badly. It’s a brutal game and this is going to be a brutal fight but it’s just what you’ve got to go through to achieve greatness.”
Moloney is a firm underdog. You don’t have to go far round here to get odds on sport.
Nakatini was the WBO flyweight champion for three years. He’s moved up a division to earn greater recognition. Referencing Moloney’s former WBA championship belt, the 25-year-old Nakatini said through an interpreter: “Andrew Moloney is ex-world champion and he has had many experiences. I expect a good fight. I think he is good. An above average fighter. I will find out his areas of weakness in the ring.”
Moloney reckons Nakatini’s never fought anyone as combative as him: “No doubt he’s a very good fighter. He’s looked very good against the opponents he’s fought. He’s a tall southpaw and seems to have decent power … I don’t think he’s fought against anyone of my level. I believe I’ve got the pace to make him come unstuck.”
The twins are one night in Vegas from being world champions together. Andrews imagines winning to bring home the fairytale one-two-punch and says: “It’s really hard to put into words,” he says. “Really difficult to explain how special it’s going to be. I’ll be extremely disappointed if I lose. We’re identical twins, we have identical records (Jason is 27-2), we’re fighting for near-identical WBO world titles. I feel a responsibility to finish it off and then you can make the movie on us. It’s our dream and it’s achievable … I really do think it’s going to come down to who wants it more. And I know for a fact that’s me.”
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