Mayweather (150.5) and Canelo (152) Make Weight

More people attended the weigh in for Saturday’s megafight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez than convene for the vast majority of fight cards which take place. The people gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena wanted to taste the atmosphere, and many of the hardcore boxing-heads also were curious if Alvarez would indeed make the contracted for weight, 152 pounds or less.

He did; the 23-year-old Mexican weighed 152, while Mayweather’s reading was 150 1/2 pounds.

Perhaps the main takeaway was that Canelo didn’t seem the slightest bit awed by the hubbub. He strolled from backstage to the stage, grinning at times, soaking in the scene. On stage, he made weight, and didn’t look too gaunt, or skeletal, even if his body fat level does seem quite minimal. Mayweather seemed maybe a bit surprised when after the weights were called out, he offered Canelo to put his hand on the green WBC belt (as seen above, in Tom Casino-Showtime photo), as a prop for photogs and Canelo blew off the offer, as if to say, I will put my hands on the belt at the proper time i.e. after I beat you, after I wrest it from you.

Jim Gray spoke to Floyd after. Floyd said the weigh in was the biggest weigh in of all time. He said he will relax and watch some football. He thanked the canelo fans, and his fans, for coming. “We’re looking to break the record,” he said.

To Canelo, Gray asked what Floyd was saying to him during the weigh in. Floyd was talking more so to his trainer, and of hard work, Canelo said. Was making 152 hard? He said that he reached it today, and knew he would. Are you ready? “I was born ready,” he said in English, after speaking in Spanish.

For the much anticipated 140 pound showdown, Danny Garcia, the titleholder, was 140.5 pounds, then stepped back on, and without shedding his drawers, was 140.To Jim Gray, he said he was “on earlier,” and he just needed people to move away from the scale, and voila.

Challenger Lucas Matthysse was 140 pounds. He said he hasn’t been bothered by Angel Garcia’s trash talk, as he doesn’t know English.

Who asked for, or offered that 152 concession, for Canelo to carve off an extra to pounds, has been debated for months. Did Team Canelo overplay their hand, and offer that as a lure to snag the gig? Or did Team Mayweather demand the two-pound concession, and then play it off as a Team Canelo misstep? That mystery will likely not be solved, as both sides stick to their version of the truth.

Estimates were between 10 and 15,000 people who packed into the MGM to see the men stripped to their skivvies and step on he scale. The official tally was 12,200, for the record. Some of them started lining up at midnight on Thursday to get in.

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