By Keith Idec

VERONA, New York – The fourth time was the charm for Maurice Hooker.

Hooker came to the scale for the third time Friday night and made weight for his 140-pound title defense scheduled for Saturday night. Dallas’ Hooker officially weighed in at 140 pounds at Turning Stone Resort & Casino after failing three times to get down to the limit for the second defense of his WBO junior welterweight title.

Mikkel LesPierre, Hooker’s opponent, made weight on his first attempt Friday afternoon. The 34-year-old LesPierre (21-0-1, 10 KOs), a Brooklyn resident raised in Trinidad & Tobago, met his contractual obligation by officially weighing in at 138¾ pounds for a fight DAZN will stream live.

Before Hooker eventually made weight, the 29-year-old champion previously stepped on the scale at 140½ pounds and 140¼ pounds.

His second trip to the scale came a little less than an hour after he weighed in at approximately 5:25 p.m. ET. A naked Hooker announced, “I took a sh*t,” and “I took a p*ss,” and but he still couldn’t make weight on that try.

Hooker (25-0-3, 16 KOs) then made another trip to a nearby bathroom, but he failed again to make weight soon thereafter.

He came back for the last time around 7:25 p.m. ET and finally had got down to the 140-pound limit, on the nose. Commission officials repeatedly told Hooker to step on the middle of the scale, which he eventually did to make 140 pounds.

Had Hooker not made weight, he would’ve been stripped of the title he won nearly nine months ago by edging England’s Terry Flanagan by split decision in Flanagan’s hometown of Manchester. Had Hooker been stripped and the fight proceeded as planned, LesPierre still would’ve fought for the WBO junior welterweight title Saturday night.

The Hooker-LesPierre bout will be part of the Dmitry Bivol-Joe Smith Jr. undercard at Turning Stone Resort & Casino.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.