same year, he lost to IBF super featherweight champion John John Molina by a twelve-round decision, in Atlantic City. 2nd Championship Reign Medina then returned to featherweight, where he won two more fights before facing Johnson in a rubber match, held on January 28, 1995 at Atlantic City. Johnson retained the IBF featherweight title he had won from Medina by beating him via a twelve-round decision. In his next fight, Medina won the WBC's regional Fecarbox title by defeating Juan Polo Perez by a twelve-round unanimous decision on March 15 in Miami, Florida. Medina's next fight was televised nationally in the United States, as he became world Featherweight champion for the second time, defeating Alejandro González on September 23 of '95, with a twelve-round unanimous decision, at Sacramento, California, for the WBC featherweight title. He lost the title in his first defense, losing a twelve-round decision to Luisito Espinosa on December 11 at Tokyo, Japan. After a win, Medina tried to become a three time world featherweight champion by challenging Naseem Hamed for Hamed's WBO title, but he was defeated by Hamed with an eleventh-round knockout on August 31, 1996 in Dublin, Ireland. He followed that loss with a win, and another attempt at winning a world featherweight championship for a third time, this time around in a rematch with Espinosa. held on May 17, 1997. He lost to the Asian champion, this time by an eight rounds technical decision at Intramuros, Philippines. Medina then lost his next fight, by a ninth-round knockout on August 7, to future world champion Derrick Gainer. On October 18, he recovered from his two loss streak to defeat Jose Ayala in Homestead, Florida, winning the WBA's Fedecentro regional championship, and setting himself in a position to obtain another chance at winning the world featherweight title for the third time. He knocked Ayala out in the eighth round. 3rd Championship Reign On April 24, 1998, Medina joined Carlos De León, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Edwin Rosario, Evander Holyfield and a small number of other boxers in the exclusive group of fighters to reign as world champions three or more times in the same division, when he outpointed defending IBF title holder Hector Lizarraga over twelve rounds in San Jose, California. He retained the title on April 16, 1999, in Las Vegas with a nine rounds technical decision over former world super featherweight champion Victor