WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez weighed in a surprisingly slim 167 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in for his title defense against Demetrius ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade for their fight this Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) weighed a half-pound heavier at 167.6 lbs.
Surprisingly, Benavidez (27-0 KOs) came in so light for the fight because he’s looked massive for the last few weeks, resembling a small heavyweight, and it was hard to imagine that he would be able to trim down to the 168-lb limit for this fight, but lo and behold, he did it. He must really want that Canelo Alvarez fight.
Undercard weights:
- Jermall Charlo 166.4 vs. José Benavídez Jr. 161.2
- Subriel Matías 139.8 vs. Shohjahon Ergashev 139.8
- Héctor Garcia 129.4 vs. Lamont Roach 129.6
That said, Benavidez didn’t look well during the weigh-in today, and he’s taken off a lot of weight in a short period of time.
It must have been hell to trim off the weight. It’s believed that overnight, the 26-year-old Benavidez will rehydrate 20+ lbs and come into the contest against Andrade weighing in the neighborhood of 187 to 190 lbs to enjoy a large size advantage of his smaller & older opponent.
“I’ve seen Andrade fight since earlier in his career when he fought with Top Rank for a few fights. He’s very talented, but for some reason, the media and the fans not liking his style because he’s boring, but he’s got skills,” said Robert Garcia to Fight Hub TV about Demetrius Andrade.
“He gets things done. He’s got really good skills. He had a few fights with Matchroom where nobody cared about him fighting. Nobody paid attention. That’s why his name was never fought up,” said Robert about when Andrade fought for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and was matched against Jason Quigley, Maciej Sulecki, and Liam Williams in fights that U.S fans weren’t interested in seeing.
“His name wasn’t brought up also because he’s not very well known, maybe he’s not going to sell that much, but he’s also very dangerous to beat you. When he was fighting at 160, that was when nobody wanted to fight him because they would lose to somebody that nobody cares about.
“He’s a good fighter. He’s going to give Benavidez a few good rounds. He’s [Andrade] big. He’s going to put up a good fight. Do, I think Benavidez wins? Yeah, but it’s going to be a good fight. It’s going to be a fight where he’s [Andrade] is going to show where people were wrong about him,” said Robert.
