Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito both made weight and looked strong and fit at today's weigh-in in New York City for their 153-pound catchweight fight tomorrow night on HBO pay-per-view, but not everything went so smoothly at Madison Square Garden this afternoon.
Cotto (36-2, 29 KO) will be defending his WBA junior middleweight title, and weighed in at 152¼. The challenger, Margarito (38-7, 27 KO), was at 152½. Margarito looked lean and relaxed, and Cotto looked like he was in his usual solid shape. Tomorrow could be a definite test of endurance for both men, so we'll find out about their endurance and fitness in about 30 hours.
But the story of the weigh-in was WBA lightweight titlist Brandon Rios. Rumors had started before the weigh-in kicked off that Rios was overweight and that the fight could be in jeopardy. After challenger John Murray (31-1, 18 KO) from England weighed in at a fit and ready 134 pounds, Rios went to the scale looking discouraged, and didn't even bother going up with his boxer shorts on, a towel covering him straight away.
Usually, that's a last resort to make weight for fighters. And we found out why. Rios weighed in at 136.4 the first time on the scales, and then 135.6 a moment later. He has one hour to make weight, but I cannot overstate this enough: Rios looked dreadful up there, like a dried-out shell of himself. We'll update you on the situation when there is an update.
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The opening two bouts of the pay-per-view broadcast had no drama on the scales. Welterweights Mike Jones and Sebastian Lujan weighed in at 146 pounds each for their IBF eliminator, and junior middleweights Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez weighed in at 153½ and 153, respectively, for the rematch of their Fight of the Year contender.
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More Cotto-Margarito Coverage From SBN
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