By Keith Idec
VERONA, New York – Maurice Hooker just couldn’t do it.
The Dallas native struggled all week to make weight for his WBO junior welterweight title defense Saturday night at Turning Stone Resort & Casino. When a naked Hooker stepped on the scale Friday, he weighed 140½ pounds, half a pound over their division’s limit.
Being overweight has jeopardized Hooker’s title defense against Mikkel LesPierre on the Dmitry Bivol-Joe Smith Jr. undercard.
The 5-feet-11 Hooker, who’s unusually tall for his weight class, has one hour from the time he weighed in, approximately 5:25 p.m. ET, to return to the scale at a maximum of 140 pounds. If Hooker can’t make weight, the WBO will strip him of a title he won by beating Terry Flanagan by split decision June 9 in Manchester, England, Flanagan’s hometown.
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. If Hooker can’t come to the scale on weight, the WBO junior welterweight title will be at stake only for LesPierre.
Later Friday, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (15-0, 11 KOs) and challenger Joe Smith Jr. (24-2, 20 KOs) each made weight for the 12-round main event of DAZN’s live stream Saturday night.
Russia’s Bivol, 28, officially weighed 173½ pounds for their 175-pound championship match. The 29-year-old Smith, of Mastic, New York, was slightly lighter than Bivol (173 pounds).
Before Hooker and LesPierres stepped on the scale, light heavyweights Callum Johnson (17-1, 12 KOs) and Sean Monaghan (29-2, 17 KOs) made weight for their 10-rounder as well.
The 33-year-old Johnson (17-1, 12 KOs), of Boston, England, weighed in at 173 pounds. The 35-year-old Monaghan, of Long Beach, New York, got on the scale at 174 pounds.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
