(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco weighed in at 134.5 pounds during Friday’s weigh-in for his bout against #4 WBC Adrien Broner for Saturday’s fight on HBO at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Broner also came in at 134.5 lbs.
In the co-main event, unbeaten heavyweight contender Seth Mitchell weighed in at a solid 242lbs and his opponent Johnathon Banks, the trainer and sparring partner for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, weighed in at considerably less at 218.5. Mitchell is expected to win this fight and likely by a knockout. Banks was an okay fighter at cruiserweight, but he’s not looked good at heavyweight since moving up in weight and it’s going to be bad for him tomorrow night.
Broner needs to beat DeMarco in order to move forward to a potential fight against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns in 2013. I don’t expect that fight to happen because I see Burns going in a different direction rather than fighting Broner and risking getting badly beaten.
However, in theory Broner is supposed to be looking to get the Burns fight next after Broner takes care of DeMarco tomorrow night. There are much better fights for Broner if he wises up and moves up light welterweight or welterweight. The lightweight division is barren of big name fighters and Broner is kind of the only one in the entire division.
If Broner stays at 135, he’ll be like a huge fish in a tiny fishbowl and that’s not where he wants to be. Broner is hoping to become a huge star in boxing, and the only way he can do that is quickly moving from division to division until he arrives at welterweight where the real fan interest in at.
DeMarco, 5’10”, is going to be working hard to try and keep his World Boxing Council title. He’s got good power, so it could be interesting if DeMarco can land his big shots on the chin of Broner.
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