by David P. Greisman
Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana both had plenty of wiggle room making weight for their welterweight title bout, which will headline a card Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio on a show being broadcast on Showtime.
by David P. Greisman
Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana both had plenty of wiggle room making weight for their welterweight title bout, which will headline a card Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio on a show being broadcast on Showtime.
Broner came in at 144.4 pounds, while Maidana was 146.2 pounds.
“He’s dehydrated!” Broner repeatedly yelled of Maidana after both had stepped on the scales.
During the ceremonial staredown, Broner shook his head and talked, while Maidana looked straight back at him, at first not reacting but eventually putting the back of his right hand to Broner’s chest and shoving him away.
Broner, 24, of Cincinnati, is 27-0 with 22 knockouts. He defended his lightweight title in February with a stoppage of Gavin Rees, then moved up to welterweight and took a world title from Paulie Malignaggi via split decision in June.
Maidana, 30, of Argentina, is 34-3 (31 KOs). His only appearance of 2013 was a June technical knockout over Josesito Lopez.
- Welterweight contender Keith Thurman apparently had no difficulty making weight, coming in at 145.8 pounds, while Jesus Soto Karass weighed in at 146.2 pounds.
Thurman, 25, of Clearwater, Fla., is 21-0 (19 KOs, 1 no contest). He outpointed Jan Zaveck in March and then stopped Diego Chaves in a brawl this past July.
Soto Karass, a 31-year-old originally from Los Mochis, Mexico, but now fighting out of Southern California, is 28-8-3 (18 KOs, 1 no contest). He took a decision over Selcuk Aydin in January and then scored a last-round technical knockout of Andre Berto in July on the same card as Thurman-Zaveck.
- Junior featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz came in at 121.4 pounds. The challenger, Cesar Seda, came in at 121.6 pounds.
Santa Cruz, a 25-year-old originally from Huetamo, Mexico, and now calling California his home, is 25-0-1 (15 KOs). He moved up to the 122-pound division earlier this year with a technical knockout over Alexander Munoz, then picked up a world title in August by knockout out Victor Terrazas.
Seda, 27, hails from Puerto Rico and has a record of 25-1 (17 KOs). His only loss came in 2011, a decision against 115-pound titleholder Omar Narvaez.
- Light heavyweight titleholder Beibut Shumenov tipped the scales at 175 pounds, while his challenger, Tomas Kovacs, came in at 174.4 pounds.
Shumenov, 30, is originally from Kazakhstan and now lives in Las Vegas. He is 13-1 (8 KOs) and is defending his belt after a layoff of a year and a half. His last appearance was a shutout of Enrique Ornelas. Kovacs, 36, of Slovakia, is 23-0 (14 KOs).
Also on the undercard:
- Former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor came in at 162.6 pounds. The 35-year-old from Little Rock, Ark., is 31-4-1 (19 KOs) and last fought 14 months ago, when he knocked out Raul Munoz.
His opponent, J.C. Candelo, a 39-year-old faded former junior middleweight fringe contender, came in at 161.8 pounds. He last fought in November 2012, a stoppage loss to Fernando Guerrero that brought his record to 32-12-4 (21 KOs).
- Rau’shee Warren, a three-time American Olympian, came in at 117 pounds. The 26-year-old from Cincinnati is 8-0 with 3 KOs, or 16-0 with 3 KOs if you include his bouts in the World Series of Boxing.
His opponent, Jose Silveira, a 34-year-old from the Yucatan in Mexico with a record of 15-9 (6 KOs), came in at 119 pounds.
- Jamel Herring, who also competed on the 2012 American boxing team, came in at 134.4 pounds. The 28-year-old from Coram, N.Y., is 5-0 (3 KOs).
His opponent, Lance Williams, a 28-year-old from Muscatine, Iowa, with a record of 6-2 (6 KOs), came in at 133.2 pounds.
- Robert Easter, a 22-year-old from Cincinnati with a record of 7-0 (7 KOs), came in at 133.6 pounds.
His opponent, Hardy Paredes, a 30-year-old originally from Chile but now fighting out of Florida, came in at 135.4 pounds. He is 16-12 (10 KOs).
- Ricardo Alvarez, who is one of Canelo Alvarez’s older brothers, came in at 140.4 pounds, and then remained at that weight after stripping down and returning to the scale a little later. An agreement was ultimately made; Alvarez will not be able to retain his regional title should he win, though his opponent, who made weight, can. Alvarez, 32, is 22-2-3 (14 KOs).
His opponent, Rod Salka, a 30-year-old from Pennsylvania with a record of 18-2 (3 KOs), came in at 138.8 pounds.
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
