John Molina, a lightweight out of Covina, entered his fight Friday night against Andrey Klimov ranked as high as No. 4 in the world by one of the major governing bodies. A victory would have put him closer to another title shot.

It didn’t happen. Klimov, of Russia, out-boxed Molina and it was Klimov who came away with a majority decision by scores of 95-95 (Alan Krebs), 96-94 (Hunter Walton) and 97-93 (Tom McDonough) at Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Wash. That last score seemed a bit out of whack, but the decision was not controversial.

Molina landed the harder punches, to be sure, just not enough of them as Klimov used his feet well to stay out of serious harm’s way; Molina did shake him up with some power shots in the fourth round.

The setback is a blow to Molina. It will now be harder for him to land that second championship fight. He challenged lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco in September 2012, DeMarco stopping Molina in the first round.

Molina, 30, is 25-3 with 20 knockouts. Klimov, 30, is 16-0 with eight knockouts.