Tomás Molinares

Tomás Molinares (born April 6, 1965 in Cartagena ) is a former Colombian professional boxer. He was in 1988 after a controversial win against Marlon Starling , briefly WBA welterweight champion.

The 1.75 m tall left-hand boom began professional boxing in 1984 and won 23 fights in a row, 20 of them prematurely. He was in June 1985 against Simon Ramos Colombian champion and in November 1986 against Sergio Sánchez Central American champion of the WBC . In April 1986 he won against Carlos Trujillo, 1985 WBC World Cup challenger from Milton McCrory . In December 1987 he also defeated Eduardo Rodriguez, who boxed against Donald Curry in 1986 for the WBA World Cup.

On July 29, 1988, he boxed in Atlantic City against the favorite title holder Marlon Starling for the WBA World Championship. After points behind, he managed a knockout punch against Starling at the end of the fifth round, which, however, took place after the round gong. Referee Joe Cortez counted Starling out and declared Molinares the winner and new world champion. However, the New Jersey Sports Committee canceled this decision, as the blow had clearly occurred after the round gong, and changed the result of the fight to a no-contest judgment. Despite this decision and his points at the time of the cancellation, Starling did not get the title back from the WBA. Another decision would have been the disqualification of Molinares for looking up, the rating of the fight as a technical draw, or the evaluation of the score sheet; in all of these three cases Starling would have remained world champion.

Molinares never defended the title. He laid him down in December of the same year and lost two development fights by knockout in 1989, whereupon he ended his career.

predecessor	Office	successor
Marlon Starling	Welterweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) July 29, 1988 - December 12, 1988	Mark Breland

Web links

• BoxRec profile
• Fight saga