By Keith Idec
Maurice Hooker weighed in much easier Friday than he did the day before his last fight.
Four months after nearly failing to make weight for a title defense against Mikkel LesPierre, the undefeated Hooker only needed to step on the scale once Friday for his 140-pound title unification fight with Jose Ramirez on Saturday night.
Hooker called himself “unprofessional” for his weight struggles before the LesPierre bout, but he obviously applied that lesson to training camp for the high-stakes Ramirez match. Ramirez also met his contractual obligation at a weigh-in Friday afternoon at Hall of State in Fair Park in Dallas.
Dallas’ Hooker, 29, stepped on the Texas Combative Sports Program’s scale at 139½ pounds. The 26-year-old Ramirez, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Avenal, California, officially weighed in at 139½ pounds, too.
They’ll fight for Hooker’s WBO junior welterweight title and Ramirez’s WBC super lightweight title in Arlington, Texas. DAZN will stream the Hooker-Ramirez match as the main event of a 10-bout card from the University of Texas at Arlington’s College Park Center (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT).
The 5-feet-11 Hooker will make the third defense of the WBO belt he won by edging England’s Terry Flanagan by split decision 13 months ago in Manchester, Flanagan’s hometown. The 5-feet-10 Ramirez also will make the third defense of a WBC championship he won by defeating fellow American Amir Imam by unanimous decision 16 months ago in New York.
Most Internet sports books list Ramirez as a slight favorite over Hooker.
Earlier Friday, Tevin Farmer and Guillaume Frenois made weight for their 12-round, 130-pound championship match on the Hooker-Ramirez undercard.
Philadelphia’s Farmer (29-4-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) weighed in at 129¾ pounds. France’s Frenois (46-1-1, 12 KOs) stepped on the scale at 129½ pounds.
Frenois, 35, is the mandatory challenger for the 28-year-old Farmer’s IBF junior lightweight title.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
