GLENDALE, Ariz. -It may be titled “When the doubt weighs heavy” to appropriately describe the atmosphere that reigned in front of the Gila River Arena on the occasion of the official weigh-in by David Lemieux and David Benavidez.
When the two protagonists of the final for the WBC interim super-middleweight title could easily respect the 168 lbs limit (166.2 for Lemieux and 166.4 for Benavidez), it was enough to ask a lot of questions.
Unfortunately, the people who have to ask them evaporate faster than the grain of sweat on your forehead at about 40 degrees Celsius and less than 5% humidity.
More than an hour before the weigh-in, former head of boxing at Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ), Michel Hamelin, alerted promoter Camille Estephan about what he described as misusing the device to record the weight of boxers.
Hamelin is not officially accredited for the event, but he came to Arizona with his trained eyes to ring the bell in the event of anything unusual.
First of all, a device like that all day is not worth much … You should come with a weight witness, say 50 lbs, to prove the size. It should read 50.0. Since then, no one should hold on to it. But there they spent their time playingfirst explained by Hamelin on Radio-Canada Sports.
The World Boxing Council (WBC) supervisor who was present at the event never went up on stage to monitor its progress. He knows how to sit on the floor acting as a simple spectator.
Everyone needs to do their job well. I cannot say that there was fraud, but the work was not done according to standard rules. The scales are under the sun from 10:30 am Leave your cell phone in the sun for half an hour, you will see what happensHamelin added.
No bad surprises
In David Lemieux’s lineage, the weight recorded at the weigh-in was within an ounce of what was read, earlier in the morning in his hotel room, on two properly calibrated devices used by Marc Ramsay and his team for bring. all important appointments.
” You should know that there is a package of very strict WBC rules to frame weight measurements. Boxers were weighed 30 days, 14 days, then 7 days before their fight. We followed the protocol to the letter. Within a week, David maintained himself at 170 or 171 lbs. “
The size used today is quite barouette left and right, but it is properly calibrated.
Camille Estephan put it in the inexperience of the young leaders of the forming Arizona Athletic Commission.
They had to fix some heat -related issues but no major. There are a few minor issues that should be fixed in other chapters, but everything is ok for now.said Estephan in a diplomatic tone when we spoke to him more than an hour after the weigh-in.
We will eat together especially David [Lemieux]. He deserves itend of promoter.
Hopefully the Montreal boxer will still feel like getting into the ring on Saturday night.
Source: Radio-Canada
