Wilder vs Breazeale: Weigh-in passes without incident, fights set for Saturday night

There has been a lot of nastiness, bad blood, and plain old hype between Deontay Wilder and Dominic Breazeale leading up to tomorrow night’s fight on Showtime (9:00 pm ET) for Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title, but today’s weigh-in was a quiet affair, a pair of professionals letting this moment pass without incident, unlike thugs Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs a couple weeks ago.

Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KO) weighed in at 223¼, with Breazeale (20-1, 18 KO) at 255¼ for the main event from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

For Wilder, that’s notably about 11 pounds more than he was on the scales in December against Tyson Fury, reversing a recent trend of his weight getting lower and lower. In the seven fights before this, Wilder had weighed in at 229, 228¾, 228¾, 226¼, 222, 220¾, 214¾, and 212½.

For Breazeale, it’s about normal.

Here’s the STAREDOWN!

The two said nothing face-to-face, unlike Thursday’s presser, where Wilder jawed endlessly.

“There’s nothing more that needs to be said. Tomorrow is judgment day,” Wilder said. “We’re both gonna see red. This is what makes great fights. Don’t y’all want great fights?”

Asked if it would be a shootout, Wilder replied, “This is gonna be a blowout.”

“I was looking deep into his soul. He’s probably out of words at this point. It’s fight time,” Breazeale said. “I think (the bad blood) motivated me during camp. Coming into the fight, though, I’m gonna act like a professional and get that knockout win.”

Asked how he would KO Wilder, Breazeale said, “Put my leather in his face as often as possible. Whoever lands first, whoever lands the big shot first.”

Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME

In the co-feature, Gary Russell Jr (29-1, 17 KO) will defend his WBC featherweight title against Kiko Martinez (39-8-2, 28 KO). Russell weighed in at 125¾, with Martinez at 124½, both comfortably below the 126-pound limit.

Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME

The Showtime opener will see Juan Heraldez (16-0, 10 KO) take a step up against Argenis Mendez (25-5-2, 12 KO) in a 10-round junior welterweight bout. Heraldez weighed in at 140½, with Mendez at 140¾.

Bad Left Hook will have live coverage of Wilder-Breazeale starting tomorrow at 9:00 pm ET, with prelim coverage and stream beginning at 6:30 pm ET