By Francisco Salazar
Both Miguel Cotto and Yoshihiro Kamegai made weight for their 12 round bout Saturday night at the Stubhub Center in Carson, California. Cotto tipped the scale at 153.6 pounds at Friday's weigh-in, while Kamegai weighed in at 153.8 pounds.
The vacant WBO junior middleweight title will be up for grabs.
Saturday night will mark the first time Cotto (40-5, with 33 KOs) has fought since losing a unanimous decision to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in November of 2015. Kamegai (27-3-2, with 24 KOs) stopped Jesus Soto-Karass in his last bout on September 10 at The Forum in nearby Inglewood.
In the opening bout of the HBO 'World Championship Boxing' telecast (9:45 p.m. ET/ 6:45 p.m. PT), Rey Vargas, who will defend his WBC junior featherweight title, weighed in at 121.6 pounds. Ronny Rios weighed in at 122 pounds.
MIGUEL COTTO, Four-Division World Champion:
"It's a pleasure for me to be here. We've been enjoying every session at the gym. I've been doing my work as hard as I can. We're ready. We are ready for the fight, and I'm happy to be back. Thank you everyone for being here. We're going to do our best this Saturday, and the winners will be fans all over the world."
FREDDIE ROACH, Trainer of Miguel Cotto:
"We had a really good training camp, a little longer than usual. He [Cotto] had a little bit of layoff previously, but camp went well. We watched a lot of film on our opponent [Kamegai]. We have a really great strategy, and it will be an action packed fight. Miguel is 100 percent ready. It was the best training camp we've had yet. We'll see you Saturday. Thank you."
YOSHIHIRO "MAESTRITO" KAMEGAI, Junior Middleweight Contender:
"Hello everyone I'm Yoshihiro Kamegai from Japan. I want to thank HBO, Golden Boy, Teiken Promotions, the WBO, Miguel Promotions-everyone who made this event possible. I'm extremely pleased to be back at StubHub, where a lot of legendary battles have been fought. I'm looking forward to it. I'm extremely pleased to be fighting for the WBO title belt held by great champions like Oscar De La Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, and I'm looking forward to fighting a great legendary champion like Miguel Cotto."
SENDAI TANAKA, Trainer to Yoshihiro Kamegai:
"I want to thank HBO, Golden Boy Promotions, and Teiken Promotions. Thank you especially to Miguel Cotto for accepting Kamegai as an opponent. Cotto is a legendary fighter, very complete, worldwide one of the best. Kamegai is very excited and happy to step into the ring with a fighter like Miguel Cotto. And you know his style. He likes to train, to punch and take punches. And he's very excited to get in there and give you guys a great fight. That's why he'll throw punches until victory comes, always.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
