By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KO’s) weighed in at a slim and muscular looking 224 lbs. on Friday’s weigh-in. Deontay, 28, is looking to score his 30th consecutive knockout and he’s got an excellent chance of accomplishing that goal. His opponent Nicolai Firtha (21-10-1, 8 KO’s) looked pretty good in coming in at 252.5 lbs. The 6’6″ Firtha looks like he’s in football shape, and he appears ready to give it all he can on Saturday night to try and avoid becoming Deontay’s 30th KO victim.
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48-year-old Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) looked good as always in weighing in at 172.5 lbs. His opponent Karo Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s) weighed in a little heavier at 174 lbs. despite being three inches shorter than the 6’1′ Hopkins. Murat looks in good shape, but it’s hard to see him as having any chance in this fight. I can’t for the life of me understand what gave the International boxing Federation the great idea to rank Murat at #2 in the IBF. He hasn’t beaten anyone of note since he was stopped in the 10th round by Nathan Cleverly three years ago in 2010. Murat has fought three times since that fight, beating someone named Sandro Siproshvili, Otis Griffin and Christian Cruz. Siproshvili and Cruz are journeyman. The only half way decent opponent that Murat fought in the last three years was Gabriel Campillo, and Murat was held to a controversial 12 round draw in their fight two years ago in October 2011. I saw that fight and had Campillo easily winning it. A draw and three wins over the guys that Murat beat shouldn’t have been enough to give him a number #2 ranking by the IBF, at least not as far as I’m concerned. Since when are fighters ranked at No.2 off of wins like the ones that Murat got?
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WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (29-0, 21 KO’s) weighed in at 159.25 lbs. and looked good. Quillin is a lot like Hopkins in that he always comes into his fights in shape. His opponent Gabriel Rosado (21-6, 13 KO’s) weighed in at 160 lbs. right on the button. Rosado was the guy that WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin destroyed in 7 rounds earlier this year. Talk about your boring fights. Rosado had his track shoes on in that fight was running from the word go. What a wasted effort by him, and now he’s getting another world title shot. What is up with that? Rosado loses in a fight where he stinks up the joint with his running, and then gets another title against Quillin.
Official weights:
Deontay Wilder 224 lbs, Nicola Firtha 252.5 lbs
Bernard Hopkins 172.5 lbs., Karo Murat 174 lbs.
Peter Quillin 159.25 lbs., Gabriel Rosado 160 lbs.
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