COMMENTARY: WHY CAN?T FIGHTERS CONSISTENTLY MAKE WEIGHT?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 19 Feb 2011
LAS VEGAS -- To begin with, allow me to state I have been to many fights, some up close and personal either as a cut-man or a photographer. Of course that does not make me a boxing expert. However, I know enough to be able to voice out my observations.
Case in point: Fighters failing to make weight on the official weigh-in 24 hours before a fight.
This afternoon at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel and Casino, Top Rank held the official weigh-in for the fight card headlined by WBO-WBC Bantamweight champion, Fernando Montiel and his challenger, Nonito ?Da Filipino Flash? Donaire.
There were eight fights in total. All of the fighters involved in the fight card made the required weight except Mark Melligen who is up against Gabriel Martinez of Emplame, Mexico. Melligen came in one pound over the first time he stepped on the scales.
Melligen?s failure on his first attempt to make weight was sad. Very sad in fact!
He was ?only? one pound over, but there was no excuse for it.
Period.
His trainers tried in vain to help him make weight by stripping him to his birthday suit. Sadly, they failed.
Melligen was simply over the limit and his flimsy shorts had nothing to do with it.
As someone who is very close to the kid, I was disappointed to say the least. I have worked Melligen?s corner before on more than one occasion as a cutman and I never once saw him not make weight.
Why did Melligen fail to make weight this time and for a fight that may dramatically influence his future with Top Rank?
I don?t know for sure but I believe its due to lack of focus on small details.
Today?s incident should serve as a wake up call to all the ALA boxers. Not making weight on the hour of the weight-in should never happen again.
No excuses!
Perhaps, it would help if the handlers of each fighter pay more attention to little details.
It certainly would not hurt, if they take their time to weigh their fighter an hour before the official weigh in to determine where he is. And, if there is a problem, then and there, it should be addressed before the fighter is brought to the official weigh in.
Did they do a pre-weight in before they came to the venue? No one for sure will know, but knowing Melligen?s team, I am inclined to believe that they did. Perhaps then they had a faulty scale at home and they need to buy a new more accurate one.
Or, they can do what Donaire did today.
Just before weigh-in time, Donaire?s handlers were allegedly unsure of his weight. What did they do?
They went up the scales to do an ?unofficial weigh-in?. Montiel?s camp alleged that Donaire was a hair over the limit. No one amongst the media people knew for sure if Donaire was indeed over. But, his trainers went behind the curtain and did what they had to do. With that Donaire tipped the scales at exactly 118 when official weigh in time came. Whatever they did is truly a smart move and they should be congratulated.
I am not suggesting here that Melligen should have done the same. What I wanted to bring across is that the handlers should have been more definitely sure that Melligen was within the limit before they showed up at the venue.
With that things would have been different.
Hopefully, Melligen?s failure to make weight the first time around did not affect his psyche. But knowing him up close and personal, I am sure that he will get over it and come up tomorrow well prepared for the fight- mentally and physically.
PS. As this was being written, I was told by Lee Samuels of Top Rank (via text message) that Melligen made weight after he came back for the second chance to weigh in. He was 147lbs.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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