Michael Campbell at the scales
The main players for Saturday night’s HBO-televised card made weight, which is a bit newsworthy considering the news that came out of Houston just 24 hours prior.
Never in question was the main event, with hometown favorite and former multi-belted lightweight titlist Juan Diaz (33-1, 17KO) and Michael Katsidis (23-1, 20KO) both weighing in at 134.5 for their 12-round bout, to be contested for the vacant IBO lightweight title.
What came as a surprise was that the co-feature bout also saw both of its contestants make weight. It was reported by Boxingscene.com Thursday evening that former junior lightweight titlist Jorge Barrios was struggling to make weight, and asked that the limit for his 12-round fight with H-Town’s own Rocky Juarez be raised from 130 to 133 lb.
An agreement was reached, with Barrios’ camp paying an undisclosed sum to Team Juarez, with the further condition that Juarez would have to the right to either pull out of the fight or demand more from Barrios’ purse should his opponent be unable to make the modified limit.
It turned out to be all for naught. Juarez (27-4, 19KO) weighed 130.5 lb for the fight, one-half pound heavier than Barrios (47-3-1, 34KO), whose official weight was announced at 130 lb.
Both bouts will air on HBO, as part of their Boxing After Dark series. The televised portion of the show is scheduled to begin at 10:15 PM ET/PT (tape-delayed on the West Coast), airing live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
