LAS VEGAS – A lightweight title fight that has appeared more compelling with each passing day this fight week moved to the precipice of the first punch Friday when both IBF lightweight titleholder Raymond Muratalla (134.6lbs) and challenger Andy Cruz (134.4lbs), a 2021 Olympic gold medalist, made weight.

Meanwhile, light heavyweight Khalil Coe, of New Jersey, was a staggering 6.8 pounds over his contracted weight limit, weighing 182.8lbs.

Coe agreed to pay opponent and former two-time super middleweight title challenger Jesse Hart of Philadelphia $30,000 (30 per cent of his purse) to let the co-main event go forward Saturday on DAZN at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

Hart weighed in at 174.6lbs.

The 29-year-old Coe, 10-1-1 (8 KOs), and Hart, 31-3 (25 KOs), engaged in an extended and loud verbal exchange at Thursday’s news conference over the credibility of their respective East Coast gyms.

When Hart touted his Philadelphia home, he mentioned “cheesesteaks,”  prompting Coe to ironically reply, “Talk about something else.”

On Friday, the pair nearly came to blows, shouting at each other during and after the ceremonial weigh-in.

“I ain’t upset at all,” a visibly agitated Hart told BoxingScene afterward. “This is what I’m coming for. I don’t care about the weight, I don’t care about none of that. He’s got to pay the rent, the rent is due, and I’m coming. He knew that. He fucked that energy up. For him to come in eight pounds overweight is really unprofessional. It means he’s trying to get out of something. He’s trying to duck something.

“He knew about this fight for 12 weeks. He’s got to pay.”

As for the battle of unbeatens between Cruz and Muratalla, the competitiveness of the bout matching Cruz’s acumen and Muratalla’s brawn and pressure brought them to these final hours with mandatory challenger Cruz standing as a -250 betting favorite 

In other fights:

Junior middleweight – 10 rounds

Israil Madrimov (156.4lbs) vs. Luis Salazar (157.8lbs)

Junior middleweight – six rounds

Omari Jones (151lbs) vs. Jerome Baxter  (149.6lbs)

Junior lightweight – six rounds

Zaquin Moses (132.8lbs) vs. Leandro Damian Medina (134.2)

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.