Alen Babic (8-0, 8 KO) will remain on the undercard of the heavyweight showdown between Dillian Whyte and Otto Wallin after his previously scheduled opponent, Lucas Browne, was forced to withdraw due to travel restrictions. He is now set to square off veteran Texan Eric Molina (28-7, 20 KO).
Molina has fought and been stopped by several noteworthy heavyweights over the past decade. He faced Chris Arreola in 2013, Deontay Wilder in 2015, Anthony Joshua in 2016, Dominic Breazeale in 2017, Filip Hrgovic in 2019, and Fabio Wardley earlier this year, and on each occasion did not make it to the final bell. He did knock out a faded Tomasz Adamek in 2016, but that was a long time ago and Molina looks to have settled more fully into the role of professional opponent since then.
For Babic, this matchup gives him the opportunity to try to one-up his countryman and rival Filip Hrgovic, who stopped Molina in the third round of their fight on the undercard of the Ruiz-Joshua rematch in 2019. While Hrgovic seems less interested than Babic in eventually sharing the ring, this might end up being the most significant fight either man have available to them in the immediate future.