By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

WBO #1, WBA #3, IBF #4, WBC #5 bantamweight Jason “Smooth One” Moloney (21-1, 18 KOs), who faces WBA/IBF bantamweight champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) on October 31 in Las Vegas, has praised Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum.

”Bob Arum is an absolute legend who believes that the Inoue vs. Moloney is going to be the “Fight of the Year,“ Moloney told Fightnews.com®. “To have him believing in me and backing me also giving me this massive opportunity and obviously showing a lot of excitement for the fight is just unbelievable.

“He is a smart man and he has been around boxing for a long time – I think he is right – it is going to be the “Fight Of the Year.” It’s great to be part of it. I am in this sport and have dedicated my life to the sport for seventeen years and this is what I want – I want the big fights. I want to achieve something special in my career. This is the opportunity to achieve maybe one of the biggest things for Australian Boxing.

“I think I have the edge (over Inoue) in skill and work rate. We will find out. At times he is reckless. I am probably a bit more calculated also better defensively. He does back his power so much. He is very impressive but he opens himself up to be caught himself. I plan on being very smart and pulling the trigger when I need to and also being smart enough to not get hit as much as his other opponents.”