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Philippines, 01 Dec 2024 |
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Another Argument for the Day of the Fight Weigh-in By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Mon, 26 Apr 2021  Navarrete (L) and Diaz pose during their official weigh-in. At the official weigh-in for their WBO featherweight title fight set in the morning of Friday, April 23, Puerto Rican challenger Christopher 'Pitufo' Diaz tipped the scales at 125.8 lbs. while Mexican defending champion Emanuel 'Vaquero' Navarrete was .2 lbs over the limit of 126 lbs. With the round girls turned around, Navarrete shed his shorts and hit the limit. That was more than 48 hours before their actual fight held in the evening of the following day, Saturday, April 24 (Sunday afternoon in Manila, April 25). By fight time, one can only wonder what were the actual weights of the two protagonists. Pitufo perhaps could be a full lightweight but he was still dwarfed by Navarrete who could even be a welterweight. The ringside commentators even wondered out loud how could a fighter the size of Navarrete could have beaten the scales when he was then fighting at the super bantamweight or 122 lbs. Navarrete proceeded to manhandle his shorter opponent and eventually registered a 12th round technical knockout victory as Diaz's corner waved the flag of surrender after the Mexican floored Pitufo for the fourth time. The ringside announcers were saying no one could beat Navarrete at featherweight with his height and length and style of fighting. And may I hasten to add, the rule on official weigh-in that virtually allows a fighter after making the limit to come as heavy but not exceeding two divisions over the contracted weight! Organizers used to report the fighters actual weight at fight time but no longer, I wonder. It could be because they would want to cover the sham that has been going on for years and decades since the authorities adopted the day, actually more than a day, before the fight official weigh in from the traditional morning of the fight. They claimed it was primarily for health reason and to prevent any loss on the part of the promoter should a fighter fails to meet the weight limit as they are afforded enough time to make replacements. The health reason only came about when fighters during the time insisted on fighting at weight class which limit he can no longer meet or tried to cheat by deliberately starving himself to meet the limit thereby endangering his health and life then trying to rehydrate to his actual full strength which was usually above and over his contracted fighting weight. The problem is not the weight class. The reason a certain division already has a weight range, i.e. 113 to 118 for example for the bantamweights, is to enable a fighter to come in within that range for his most suitable fighting condition and weight by fight time but not exceeding the maximum limit. The problem lies with the mentality of trying to put one over the other. Simply stated, panggugulang. In the West especially, it is now customary for any boxing consultant to recommend for any fighter to fight at a weight class below his actual optimum fighting weight capacity. Meaning to say, they would advise a natural middleweight to campaign at welterweight. Recall that in the earlier days, especially American fighters who excelled in the amateurs and the Olympics like Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers, Michael and Leon, turned pro at higher weight classes. That's because being young and still growing, they knew they would have very hard time and would not last fighting at their old weight classes given the former strict weigh-in requirements. Today, fighters as Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksander Usyk and even Artur Beterbiev could turn pro at weight classes equal to or even below their divisions when they were still fighting at amateur because of the very liberal rule on weigh-in and the multiplication of the weight classes to a total of the current 17! Loma fought as high as lightweight as amateur but turned pro as featherweight while both Usyk and Beterbiev were heavyweights as amateurs but turned pro as cruiserweight and light heayyweight, respectively. Talagang angat sila naturally. (On the other hand, this panggugulang is also evident in the amateurs. Notice how they have pared down the boxing classes in the amateurs to just so many eliminating a divisions that the Caucasians would not be competitive as the light flyweights and bantamweights.) This state of affairs is advantageous only to the rich and developed countries who could well afford modern sports science and medicine as well as training facilities to enable their boxers to thrive in the current system or explore the gray areas of the existing rules and procedures. This also gives rise to the use of illegal performing enhancing drugs and resort to measures of eluding ped use detection. Needless to say, this state of affairs particularly on weight regulation and alleged restriction measures is patently disadvantageous to Third World countries whose diet by and large dictate the natural physique and physical condition of their athletes relative to their fighting weight and weight class. Asian fighters are naturally what and who they are, with the least of scientific intervention or shall we say, "manipulation" or "manufacturing." Fighters as Fighting Harada, Naoya Inoue, Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire are genetically destined to be special fighters. As long as we have so-called these rules in place allowing for day before the fight weigh-in and fighters to come in no more than two divisions above the weight limit they are supposed to fight, we will have "freaks" dominating certain so called weight class. We will continue to have this travesty of the supposed weight classification of pro fighters. We will continue to have shams. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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