By Jake Donovan

Any chance of the emotion from Thursday’s spirited final pre-fight press conference spilling over into Friday’s weigh-in was dashed by the event threatening to never begin. Things ran more than an hour late, but everyone eventually made their way to the scale, with all fighters but one making weight for their respective appearances on Saturday night’s “SHOWTIME Summer Sizzler” card at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida.

Ten bouts presently grace the official bout sheet; eight come before the Showtime cameras begin rolling (Saturday 9PM ET/PT).

The show is headlined by the bantamweight grudge match between current titlist Joseph Agbeko and unified super flyweight king Vic Darchinyan, who moves up in weight in search of a major title in three weight classes.
 
Both fighters were easily inside of the bantamweight limit. The challenger Darchinyan (32-1-1, 26KO) came in at a ripped and ready 117.5 lb, with the defending titlist Agbeko (26-1, 22KO) weighing in at a shredded 116.5 lb, the lightest he has weighed in nearly five years, though just ¼ lb shy of his weight in his title winning effort against Luis Perez 22 months ago.

This will be just the second title defense for Agbeko, whose championship reign has been marred by inactivity. Multiple postponements of his mandatory defense against William Gonzalez led to a forced 15-month layoff before struggling to a majority decision in their fantastic shootout last December.

It’s been just the opposite for Darchinyan, who remains on pace for his usual three fights per year. The transplanted Armenian enters the fight on the strength of three straight knockouts, all coming against top tier super flyweights (Dimitry Kirilov, Cristian Mijares and Jorge Arce) to up his record to 10-1 in major title fights, with the lone loss coming two years ago.

Agbeko and Darchinyan have waged a war of words from the moment the fight was signed, but kept it limited to an extended staredown during Friday’s weigh-in.

The co-feature participants have far more respect for one another, as Antonio DeMarco and Anges Adjaho have been consummate professionals in the weeks and days leading up to their lightweight title eliminator Saturday evening.

DeMarco (21-1-1, 15KO) has enjoyed a brilliant run towards lightweight contention, beginning with his breakout performance in an upset decision win over Nick Casal two years ago on Shobox.  The fight that aided the 23-year old Mexican southpaw to this opportunity was his career-best performance to date, a ninth-round stoppage of Almazbek Raiymkulov this past February, which also came in the co-feature slot to a Showtime card headlined by Darchinyan.

The baby-faced boxer-puncher had no problem making weight, coming in slightly under at 134.25 lb. The same cannot be said for Adjaho (25-1, 14KO), who needed two tries to make the lightweight limit, but eventually registered at 135 on the nose.

It almost didn’t happen, at least not immediately. Adjaho was told he could either strip down to his birthday suit, or run outside in order to work off the extra ¼ lb he was over.  Ever the shy warrior, Adjaho felt uncomfortable removing any more wardrobe than necessary, but agreed to the ritual once an Army of employees from the promotional stables of Don King and Gary Shaw circled around him to ensure that nobody else would sneak a peek.

Adjaho was so relieved upon hearing that he made weight, he hugged rival promoter Shaw (Adjaho is part of the Don King stable) as well as his opponent, both of whom graciously posed for the cameras soon thereafter.

A win puts Adjaho in line to become the first ever fighter from his country of Benin to fight for a major title. The winner earns a mandatory title shot at undefeated beltholder Edwin Valero.

The SHOWTIME telecast is presented by Don King Productions and Gary Shaw Productions.

WEIGH-IN RESULTS – ENTIRE CARD

Main Event - 12 Rounds, Bantamweight Title Bout
Joseph Agbeko, 116.5 lb vs. Vic Darchinyan, 117.5 lb

Co-Feature - 12 Round Lightweight Elimination Bout
Antonio DeMarco, 134.25 lb vs. Anges Adjaho, 135 lb

Undercard - 12 Round Cruiserweight Elimination Bout
Steve Cunningham, 195 lb vs. Wayne Braithwaite, 194.75 lb.

Undercard – 12 Round Welterweight Elimination Bout
Miguel “Miki” Rodriguez 146 lb vs. Ivan Kirpa, 145 lb.

Preliminary Bouts:
Francisco Palacios, 197.25 vs. Manu N’Toh 196.75 (10 rounds, cruiserweights)
Angelo Santana, 137.5 Jamie Rodriguez 136.75 (6 rounds, lightweights)
Archie Ray Marquez, 132.5 vs. Jason Hayward, 132 (6 rounds, super featherweights)
Victor Fonseca, 122.75 vs. Mauricio Pastrana, 122.5 (8 rounds, super bantamweights)
Lanard Lane,145.75 vs. Carlos Garcia, 148.5 * (4 rounds, welterweights)

* Garcia needed three tries to make the agreed limit of 149 lb, weighing ¼ lb heavy on the previous attempts before getting under the limit within the allotted two-hour time frame.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .