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The card is titled “Latin Fury!” and Sam Garcia - the trainer of Jose Celaya - was full of “fury” about how Friday’s weigh-in was handled. “It was a spectacle! They walked us up to a stage and Jose Sulaiman (President of the WBC) said, ‘The stage is a bit shaky, so we are going allow 300 grams (almost 10 ounces) over the limit (154-pounds).’ I said ‘No!’ to Sulaiman but we were told to step on the scale before I could say anything more. They put the marker on the 154 pound mark and it (the beam) started to dip down and they said ‘Alright, you can get down’ but I wanted to know exactly what my fighter weighed but they made him get off. It was going too fast.”
Garcia and Celaya then moved away from the area to allow Julio César Chávez Jr. and his camp access to the scale. Garcia had intended to go back to the scale to monitor the weigh-in of Chavez but stated that he was suddenly cut-off by “a perimeter of people surrounding the scale that were pushing and shoving” which blocked his view of the scale beam. “Chavez came up to the scale while Jose was putting on his pants. He stepped on the scale with his arms in the air and in a blink of an eye he stepped off and started drinking Pediolyte.* It was blur. They would not allow me to read the scale before Chavez stepped off. It was ugly, it was bad news. I went over to (Fernando) Beltran (the promoter) and said, ‘That’s bull****!’ but he said nothing.”
Garcia stated that he knew it was “too late to complain” as the fighters poised for photos. “Chavez looked bad. I saw it in his face. It’s going to be to our advantage anyway. I am not upset. I just want the people to know about this. We are going to win and we are going to win without cheating. Just because we are in Mexico doesn’t mean that they can make their own rules. They are rules and regulations. At least you can do is make the weight!” Although upset, Garcia was confident and proudly stated: “We never threaten to pull out! The fight is on!”
*Pediolyte is oral rehydration solutions (ORS) that contains a mixture of salt, sugar, potassium and other elements that is normally used for infants to replace body fluids that are depleted from vomiting or diarrhea. Boxers drink Pediolyte to quickly replenish their electrolytes from rapid or extreme weight loss.
Garcia and Celaya then moved away from the area to allow Julio César Chávez Jr. and his camp access to the scale. Garcia had intended to go back to the scale to monitor the weigh-in of Chavez but stated that he was suddenly cut-off by “a perimeter of people surrounding the scale that were pushing and shoving” which blocked his view of the scale beam. “Chavez came up to the scale while Jose was putting on his pants. He stepped on the scale with his arms in the air and in a blink of an eye he stepped off and started drinking Pediolyte.* It was blur. They would not allow me to read the scale before Chavez stepped off. It was ugly, it was bad news. I went over to (Fernando) Beltran (the promoter) and said, ‘That’s bull****!’ but he said nothing.”
Garcia stated that he knew it was “too late to complain” as the fighters poised for photos. “Chavez looked bad. I saw it in his face. It’s going to be to our advantage anyway. I am not upset. I just want the people to know about this. We are going to win and we are going to win without cheating. Just because we are in Mexico doesn’t mean that they can make their own rules. They are rules and regulations. At least you can do is make the weight!” Although upset, Garcia was confident and proudly stated: “We never threaten to pull out! The fight is on!”
*Pediolyte is oral rehydration solutions (ORS) that contains a mixture of salt, sugar, potassium and other elements that is normally used for infants to replace body fluids that are depleted from vomiting or diarrhea. Boxers drink Pediolyte to quickly replenish their electrolytes from rapid or extreme weight loss.
Gran Campeon
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