By Jake Donovan

With the turnout at the Albuquerque Downs this afternoon, you’d have thought all three legs of the Triple Crown were in town.

Once upon a time, a weigh-in used to be limited to the fighters, their chief seconds, a commission member and a scale in a room no bigger than a closet. Muhammad Ali helped change all of that during his run, with a simple task of stepping onto a scale having since evolved into a pre-fight extravaganza.

The spirit of the weigh-in as we know it today was alive and well at the Albuquerque Downs, with the room stuffed to the gills, to watch the chief principles weigh in for tomorrow nights “Latin Fury” PPV show. And perhaps for the first time, undefeated welterweight prospect-cum-contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. got a sampling of what it will be like to NOT have crowd or home field advantage, with many on hand to cheer on Albuquerque’s latest favorite son, former amateur standout Ray Sanchez III.

The weigh-in didn’t go without its share of drama. All camps arrived an hour early, as instructed to. The Chavez’ – with the legendary Lion of Culiacan Julio Sr. on hand to support his son - used the downtime to greet their legion of fans, patiently granting all autograph and photo requests. Julio Jr managed to slip away from the crowd just long enough to jump on the scale – 45 or so minutes early – to ensure that he was at or near target wait.

The Sanchez camp immediately flocked to center stage, suspecting shenanigans, only to have their fears alleviated by Top Rank PR extraordinaire Lee Samuels.

Tension began to mount, creating the feeling that the event couldn’t start soon enough. As advertised, the weigh-in began at 2PM. First on the scale was Chavez Jr. A towel stretched over a portion of the stage, many wondering why young Julio was stripping down when he already checked his weight less than an hour prior. But it was just to prevent exposure of a potential banana boat, as Junior and his briefs clocked in at 150 lb, who then posed to the delight of his supporters.

Next up, the hometown kid, Ray Sanchez, who drew a louder ovation than all of the other fighters combined. The hometown crowd hooted and hollered with every flex, and erupted the moment the emcee belted out “149 lb.”

The two then posed for the obligatory stare down, to the delight of the crowd, but not long enough to satisfy photographers just out of view, hoping for at least one more angle, but ultimately denied as neither fighter wanted to stick around any longer than necessary.

Next on the scale were the co-feature players, Jorge Arce and Megdoen Singsurat, for their 12-round bantamweight bout. “El Travieso” certainly needs no introduction among any Mexican/Mexican-American crowd. Singsurat’s name (nee Megdoen 3-K Battery) didn’t quite ring out as loud, prompting the emcee to add a little sabor to his dossier, as he was announced as “The only man to ever knock out Manny Pacquiao.” Good enough for the crowd, even if it isn’t true (Pac took a ten count 3 ½ years prior.

Singsurat would eventually standout – the muscle-bound Thai guy was the only one on the card who failed to make weight on the first try, clocking in one-half pound over the contracted bantamweight (118 lb) limit. Arce had no such problems, he and his chiseled frame coming in 1 ½ lb. under.

The Thai challenger, and former linear flyweight champ (by virtue of the aforementioned Pac knockout some eight years ago), was given two hours to come back at or under the bantamweight limit. All it took to remain in the hunt for his pound of flesh was a half-pound of piss, or so manager Paul Do insisted.

“They told us we could run. So he ran to the nearest private place, took a pee, came back and made 118 on the dot.”

The smallest guys in the room turned out to make the noise, as Ivan Calderon and Juan Esquer briefly went at it following their weigh-in and stare-down session. The littlest of boxing’s little big man, the 5’0” Calderon weighed in at 107 for the first defense of his linear junior flyweight crown he wrested from Hugo Cazares just over three months ago. His challenger, Juan Esquer, came in at the junior flyweight limit of 108 lb.

When prompted for the stare-down, Calderon sought to rekindle the Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry, with the diminutive Boricua immediately getting in Esquer’s face. The Mexican didn’t take too kindly to the antic, shoving Calderon a few steps back. The fracas was immediate squashed, though not before re-igniting a crowd who was beginning to make their way for the nearest exits.

It was nothing but pleasantries exchanged between a pair of Mikes – undefeated junior welterweight prospect Mike Alvarado and former Contender: Season Two contestant Michael Clark. Both came in at 141 lb. and shook hands before posing for pictures.

Sensing no more drama occurring, the room cleared out soon thereafter. The day at the track was done, though with everyone chomping at the bit to catch tomorrow night’s pugilistic thoroughbreds. The full night of action takes place at the Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, NM. Those still in need of tickets were informed by the promoters (Top Rank) that ticket booths will open at 12PM (local time) Saturday, with doors to open at 4PM. The first of the non-televised bouts will start at 5:30PM, with the PPV portion of the show jumping off at 7PM local time (9PM ET/6PM PT for those ordering from home, for $34.95).

Weigh-in results for the entire card:

PPV Main event – 10 rounds, welterweights
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, 33-0-1, 26KO) - 150 lb.
Ray Sanchez (Albuquerque, NM, 20-1, 15KO) – 149 lb.

PPV Co-Feature – 12 rounds, bantamweights
Jorge Arce (Los Mochis, Mexico, 47-4-1, 36KO) – 116 ½ lb.
Megdoen Singsurat (Roi-Et, Thailand, 48-4, 34KO) – 118 lb.*
* - Singsurat weighed 118 ½ on the first try, making weight 30 min later

PPV Preliminary - 12 Rounds Linear Junior Flyweight Championship
Ivan Calderon (108 lb. CHAMP – Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 29-0, 6KO) – 107 lb.
Juan Esquer (Navajoa, Mexico, 20-1-1, 15KO) – 108 lb.

PPV Preliminary - 10 Rounds, Junior Welterweights
Mike Alvarado (Denver, CO, 18-0, 12KO) – 141 ½ lb.
Michael Clark (Columbus, OH, 36-4, 17KO) – 141 ½ lb

4 Rounds, Featherweight (Non-Televised)
Matthew Esquibel (Albuquerque, NM, 6-0, 3KO) – 128 lb.
Martin Armenta (Los Mochis, Mexico, 11-15-3, 7KO) – Not present, will weigh in at a later time

4 Rounds, Bantamweight (Non-Televised)
Anthony Vialapondo (Santa Fe, NM, 2-0, 0KO) – 119 lb.
Jose Garcia (Dallas, TX, 1-2, 0KO) – 117 lb.

4 Rounds, Super Featherweight (Non-Televised)
Archie Marquez (Albuquerque, NM, Pro Debut) – 132 lb.
Scout Furney (Albuquerque, NM, 1-2, 1KO) – 130 lb.

Jake “The Jake-of-All-Trades” Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, a licensed judge, manager and promoter, and presently serves on the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. His column runs every Tuesday on BoxingScene.