By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Daniel Geale struggled to get down to 157 pounds Friday afternoon.
It’s the lowest weight he has had to reach since the former IBF middleweight champion competed in a junior middleweight bout eight years ago. But by the time Geale gets in the ring Saturday night for his WBC middleweight title fight against champion Miguel Cotto at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Australian contender will have had nearly 34 hours to regain his strength.
The 34-year-old Geale believes that’ll be more than enough time to recover from draining his body to make 157 pounds.
“I’ll feel a hundred percent better,” Geale said. “When you’re lacking fluid, you feel pretty terrible. You feel pretty tired. But as soon as you get that fluid back in – I’ve done it many times before – my body recovers very quickly. You know, within a few hours I’m sort of down here [motioned toward the floor] and I shoot right back up. I’ll feel really good for the fight.”
HBO will televise the scheduled 12 rounder between Puerto Rico’s Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) and Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.